Big pharma has spent (and lost) several fortunes trying to attack the amyloid deposits of Alzheimer’s. But like my late med school classmate’s book — “Why God Won’t Go Away” ==https://www.amazon.com/Why-God-Wont-Go-Away/dp/034544034X, amyloid won’t go away either. It’s a bit oblique but some 300 of our proteins contain a 100 amino acid stretch called BRICHOS. Why? Because it acts as a chaperone protein preventing proteins with a tendency to form amyloid from aggregating into fibrils. The amino acids form a beta sheet surrounded front and back by a single alpha helix.
[ Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. vol. 115 pp. E2752 – E2761 ’18 ] Discusses Bri2 (aka Integral Transmembrane protein 2B (ITM2B), a 266 amino acid type II transmembrane protein. Bri2 contains a carboxy terminal domain Bri23 released by proteolytic processing between amino acids #243 #244 by furinlike proteases. Different missense mutations at the stop codon of Bri2 cause extended carboxy terminal peptides called Abri or Adan to be released by the proteases. Abri produces Familial British Dementia (FBD) and Adan produces Familial Danish Dementia (FDD). Both are associated with amyloid deposition in blood vessels, and amyloid plaques throughout the brain along with neurofibrillary tangles.
What is fascinating (to me) is that the cause and cure are both present in the same molecule Bri2 also contains a BRICHOS domain. This implies (to me) that possibly the segment possibly forming amyloid is being used by the cell in some other fashion.
Bri2 is found in the beta cell of the pancreas (produces insulin). The beta cell also produces Islet Amyloid PolyPeptide (IAPP aka amylin ) one of the most potent amyloid forming proteins known. Nonetheless the pancreas makes tons of it, and like insulin, is secreted by the beta cell in response to elevated blood glucose. The present work shows that Bri2 is what keeps IAPP from forming amyloid. The BRICHOS segment (amino acids #130 – #231) is released from Bri2 by ADAM10 (you don’t want to know what the acronym stands for).
How many of the 300 or so human proteins containing the BRICHOS domain also have amyloid forming segments. If they do, this implies that the amyloid forming segments are doing something physiologically useful.
Chemiotics II 