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Mesajgönderen Birsel tarih Sal Eyl 04, 2007 10:43 pm

Amyloids are insoluble fibrous protein aggregations sharing specific structural traits.

1 Definition controversy
2 Diseases featuring amyloids
3 Non-disease amyloids
4 Amyloid biophysics
5 Amyloid pathology
6 Histological staining
7 See also
8 References
9 External links

[edit] Definition controversy

The classical, histopathological definition of amyloid is an extracellular, proteinaceous deposit exhibiting cross-beta structure. This is due to mis-folding of unstable proteins. Common to most cross-beta type structures they are generally identified by apple-green birefringence when stained with congo red and seen under polarized light. These deposits often recruit various sugars and other components such as Serum Amyloid P component, resulting in complex, and sometimes inhomogenous structures.[2] Recently this definition has come into question as some classic, amyloid species have been observed in distinctly intracellular locations.
A more recent, biophysical definition is broader, including any polypeptide which adopts a cross-beta polymerization, in vivo, or in vitro. Some of these, although demonstrably cross-beta sheet, fail other characteristic tests of amyloid, such as the congo red birefringence test. Microbiologists and biophysicists have largely adopted this definition, leading to some conflict in the biological community over an issue of language.
The remainder of this article will be inclusive with due deference to the controversy by indicating where amyloid species are observed only in the biophysical context.

[edit] Diseases featuring amyloids
Medulary Carcinoma of the Thyroid
Alzheimer's disease
Transmissible spongiform encephalopathy

[edit] Non-disease amyloids
(mostly using the biophysical definition)

Native amyloids in organisms
Curli E. coli Protein (curlin)
Yeast Prions [Sup35] [3], Rnq1
Podospora Anserina Prion Het-s
Malarial coat protein
Spider silk (some but not all spiders)
Mammalian melanosomes (pMel)
Tissue-type plasminogen activator (tPA), a hemodynamic factor
Proteins and peptides known to make amyloid without any known disease
Proteins and peptides engineered to make amyloid

[edit] Amyloid biophysics
Amyloid is characterized by a cross-beta sheet quaternary structure; that is, the strands come from different monomers and align perpendicular to the axis of the fibril. While amyloid is usually identified using fluorescent dyes, stain polarimetry, circular dichroism, or FTIR (all indirect measurements), the "gold-standard" test to see if a structure contains cross-beta fibres is by placing a sample in an X-ray diffraction beam; there are two characteristic scattering bands produced at 4 and 10 Ångstroms (0.4 nm and 1.0 nm), corresponding to the interstrand and stacking distances in beta sheets. It should be noted that the "stacks" of beta sheet are short and traverse the breadth of the amyloid fibril; the length of the amyloid fibril is built by aligned strands.

Amyloid polymerization is generally sequence-sensitive, that is, causing mutations in the sequence can prevent self-assembly, especially if the mutation is a beta-sheet breaker, such as proline. For example, humans produce an amyloidogenic peptide associated with type II diabetes, but, in Rodentia, a proline is substituted in a critical location and amyloidogenesis does not occur.


Other polypeptides and proteins such as amylin and the Alzheimer's beta protein do not have a simple consensus sequence and are thought to operate by hydrophobic association. Among the hydrophobic residues, aromatic amino-acids are found to have the highest amyloidogenic propensity.

For these peptides, cross-polymerization (fibrils of one polypeptide sequence causing other fibrils of another sequence to form) is a phenomenon observed in vitro. This phenomenon is important since it would explain interspecies prion propagation and Amyloid biophysics differential rates of propagation, as well as a statistical link between Alzheimer's and diabetes. In general, cross-polymerization is more efficient the more similar the peptide sequence, though entirely dissimilar sequences can cross-polymerize and highly similar sequences can even be "blockers" which prevent polymerization. Polypeptides will not cross-polymerize their mirror-image counterparts, indicating that the phenomenon involves specific binding and recognition events.

Xu [4], using atomic force microscopy, has shown in both lysozyme and human tau40 that formation of amyloid fibers is a two-step process in which proteins first aggregate into uniform colloidal spheres of ~20nm diameter. The spheres then join to form characteristic linear chains, which evolve over time into mature amyloid fibers. He proposes that aggregation drives conformational change and that a conformational change is not essential to initiate the aggregation process.

[edit] Amyloid pathology
The reasons for amyloid association with disease is unclear. In many cases, the deposits physically disrupt tissue architecture, suggesting disruption of function by some bulk process. In other cases, cell death is believed to precede amyloid deposition, suggesting small amyloid-like oligomers (possibly but not necessarily biophysically amyloid) cause cell death. There is significant speculation that amyloid fibrils can also puncture cells or cause problems such as ionic imbalance in cells. Further speculation has led to the hypothesis that while amyloid association may be the cause of health issues, the association itself is intiated by an underlying problem, such as one/some of the above mentioned side effects like calcium ion concentration imbalances.

[edit] Histological staining
Amyloid is typically identified by a change in the fluorescence intensity of planar aromatic dyes such as Thioflavin T or Congo Red. Congo red postitivity remains the gold standard for diagnosis of amyloidosis. This is generally attributed to the environmental change, as these dyes intercalate between beta-strands. Congophillic amyloid plaques generally cause apple-green birefringence, when viewed through crossed polarimetric filters. To avoid nonspecific staining, histology stains, such as haematoxylin and eosin stain, are used to quench the dyes' activity in other places where the dye might bind, such as the nucleus. The dawn of antibody technology and immunohistochemistry has made specific staining easier, but often this can cause trouble because epitopes can be concealed in the amyloid fold; an amyloid protein structure is generally a different conformation from that which the antibody recognizes.

[edit] See also

[edit] References
^ Nakayashiki, PNAS, 2005
^ Xu S. Aggregation drives "misfolding" in protein amyloid fiber formation. Amyloid 2007 Jun;14(2):119-31. PMID 17577685
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Mesajgönderen Birsel tarih Sal Eyl 04, 2007 10:45 pm

Amyloid diagnostics in rheumatic diseases
Abstract Amyloid is a pathological protein deposit in tissue which has a red eosin color when the slice preparation is stained with traditional hematoxylin and eosin and after Congo red staining under polarized light exhibits a characteristic apple-green polarization color. Over 26 different autologous physiological proteins have been described that can form amyloid. In surgical pathology, immunoglobulin light chain-associated AL amyloidosis is the most frequent generally occurring amyloidosis, followed by hereditary and nonhereditary ATTR amyloidosis and AA amyloidosis. AA amyloidosis mostly develops subsequent to chronic infectious or inflammatory underlying disease and can represent a potentially life threatening complication. The spectrum of causes for AA amyloidosis has changed in the past few decades and is now determined by chronic rheumatic diseases and hereditary periodic fever syndromes. Early diagnosis of an amyloidosis and its correct classification continue to pose a great challenge. Precise classification of the amyloid and amyloidosis is essential for prognosis assessment and treatment planning. In addition to anti-inflammatory management of AA amyloidosis, specific treatment strategies may possibly become available in the future.
Keywords Amyloid - Amyloidosis - Rheumatic diseases - Protein deposits - Classification
ya zirvelerden gelen su gibi duru;
ya da kavrulmus ormanlar gibi kuru

hayat istiyorsan o ol.....
Site Admin
Mesajlar: 1412
Kayıt: Sal Haz 20, 2006 6:34 pm
Konum: Seligenstadt

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