Effects of presenilin-1 familial Alzheimer's disease mutations on γ-secretase activation for cleavage of amyloid precursor protein

Gaussian accelerated molecular dynamics (GaMD) simulations and biochemical experiments in E.Coli provide mechanistic insight into how Presenilin-1 familial Alzheimer's disease mutations affect structural dynamics and enzyme-substrate interactions of gamma-secretase and APP Presenilin-1 (PS1) is the catalytic subunit of gamma-secretase which cleaves within the transmembrane domain of over 150 peptide substrates. Dominant missense mutations in PS1 cause early-onset familial Alzheimer's disease (FAD); however, the exact pathogenic mechanism remains unknown. Here we combined Gaussian accelerated molecular dynamics (GaMD) simulations and biochemical experiments to determine the effects of six representative PS1 FAD mutations (P117L, I143T, L166P, G384A, L435F, and L286V) on the enzyme-substrate interactions between gamma-secretase and amyloid precursor protein (APP). Biochemical experiments showed that all six PS1 FAD mutations rendered gamma-secretase less active for the endoproteolytic (epsilon) cleavage of APP. Distinct low-energy conformational states were identified from the free energy profiles of wildtype and PS1 FAD-mutant gamma-secretase. The P117L and L286V FAD mutants could still sample the "Active" state for substrate cleavage, but with noticeably reduced conformational space compared with the wildtype. The other mutants hardly visited the "Active" state. The PS1 FAD mutants were found to reduce gamma-secretase proteolytic activity by hindering APP residue L49 from proper orientation in the active site and/or disrupting the distance between the catalytic aspartates. Therefore, our findings provide mechanistic insights into how PS1 FAD mutations affect structural dynamics and enzyme-substrate interactions of gamma-secretase and APP.