Histidine tautomerism dependent conformational transitions driven aggregation of profilin-1: Implications in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

Aggregation of profilin-1 (PFN1) causes a fatal neurodegenerative disease, familial amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (fALS). Histidine (His) tautomerism has been linked to the formation of fibril aggregation causing neurodegenerative disease. Characterization of intermediate species that form during aggregation is crucial, however, this has proven very challenging for experimentalists due to their transient nature. Hence, molecular dynamics (MD) simulations have been performed on the His tautomeric isomers εε, εδ, δε, and δδ of PFN1 to explain the structural changes and to correlate them with its aggregation propensity. MD simulations show that His133 presumably plays a major role in the aggregation of PFN1 upon His tautomerism compared to His119. Further, the formation of a new 310-helix is observed in εε and δε but 310-helix is not observed in δδ and εδ isomers. In addition, our findings unveil that β-sheet dominating conformations are observed in His119(δ)-His133(δ) δδ isomer of PFN1 with significant antiparallel β-sheets between residues T15-G23, S29-A33, L63-L65, Q68-S76, F83-T89, T97-T105, and K107-K115, suggesting a novel aggregation mechanism possibly occur for the formation of PFN1 aggregates. Overall, these results propose that MD simulations of PFN1 His tautomers can provide a detailed microscopic understanding of the aggregation mechanisms which are hard to probe through experiments.