Inhibiting Alzheimer's Disease by Targeting Aggregation of Beta-Amyloid
Alzheimer's disease is characterized by dangerous amyloid plaques formed by deposits of the protein Beta-Amyloid aggregates in the brain. The specific amino acid sequence that is responsible for the aggregates of Beta-Amyloid is lys-leu-val-phe-phe (KLVFF). KLVFF aggregation inhibitors, which we design in this paper, prevent KLVFF from binding with itself to form oligomers or fibrils (and eventually plaques) that cause neuronal death. Our binder-blocker peptides are designed such that, on one side, they bind strongly to KLVFF, and on the other side, they disrupt critical interactions, thus preventing aggregation. Our methods use optimization techniques and molecular simulations and identify 10 candidate sequences for trial of the 3.2 million possible sequences. This approach for inhibitor identification can be generalized to other diseases characterized by protein aggregation, such as Parkinson's, Huntington's, and prion diseases.