Role of β-Hairpin Formation in Aggregation: The Self-Assembly of the Amyloid-β(25-35) Peptide

The amyloid-beta(25-35) peptide plays a key role in the etiology of Alzheimer's disease due to its extreme toxicity even in the absence of aging. Because of its high tendency to aggregate and its low solubility in water, the structure of this peptide is still unknown. In this work, we sought to understand the early stages of aggregation of the amyloid-beta(25-35) peptide by conducting simulations of oligomers ranging from monomers to tetramers. Our simulations show that although the monomer preferentially adopts a beta-hairpin conformation, larger aggregates have extended structures, and a clear transition from compact beta-hairpin conformations to extended beta-strand structures occurs between dimers and trimers. Even though beta-hairpins are not present in the final architecture of the fibril, our simulations indicate that they play a critical role in fibril growth. Our simulations also show that beta-sheet structures are stabilized when a beta-hairpin is present at the edge of the sheet. The binding of the hairpin to the sheet leads to a subsequent destabilization of the hairpin, with part of the hairpin backbone dangling in solution. This free section of the peptide can then recruit an extra monomer from solution, leading to further sheet extension. Our simulations indicate that the peptide must possess sufficient conformational flexibility to switch between a hairpin and an extended conformation in order for beta-sheet extension to occur, and offer a rationalization for the experimental observation that overstabilizing a hairpin conformation in the monomeric state (for example, through chemical cross-linking) significantly hampers the fibrillization process.