• BMB Reports
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• v.56 no.12
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• pp.645-650
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• 2023

Numerous studies have investigated the cellular prion protein (PrP^C) since its discovery. These investigations have explained that its structure is predominantly composed of alpha helices and short beta sheet segments, and when its abnormal scrapie isoform (PrPSc) is infected, PrPSc transforms the PrP^C, leading to prion diseases, including Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans and bovine spongiform encephalopathy in cattle. Given its ubiquitous distribution across a variety of cellular types, the PrP^C manifests a diverse range of biological functions, including cell-cell adhesion, neuroprotection, signalings, and oxidative stress response. PrP^C is also expressed in immune tissues, and its functions in these tissues include the activation of immune cells and the formation of secondary lymphoid tissues, such as the spleen and lymph nodes. Moreover, high expression of PrP^C in immune cells plays a crucial role in the pathogenesis of prion diseases. In addition, it affects inflammation and the development and progression of cancer via various mechanisms. In this review, we discuss the studies on the role of PrP^C from various immunological perspectives.

• Journal of the Korean Magnetic Resonance Society
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.175-186
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• 2011

Amyloid fibrils have long been known to be the well known ${\alpha}$-helix to ${\beta}$-sheet transition characterizing the conversion of cellular to scrapie forms of the prion protein. A very short sequence of Yeast prion-like protein, GNNQQNY (SupN), is responsible for aggregation that induces diseases. KSI-fused tandem repeats of SupN vector are constructed and used to express SupN peptide in Escherichia coli (E.Coli). A method for a production, purification, and cleavage of tandem repeats of recombinant isotopically enriched SupN in E. coli is described. This method yields as much as 20 mg/L of isotope-enriched fusion proteins in minimal media. Synthetic SupN peptides and $^{13}C$ Gly labeled SupN peptides are studied by Congo Red staining, Birefringence and transmission electron microscopy to characterize amyloid fibril formation. To get a better understanding of aggregation-structure relationship of 7 residues of Yeast prion-like protein, the change of a conformational structure will be studied by $^{13}C$ solid-state nmr spectroscopy as powder of both amorphous and fibrillar forms.

• Development and Reproduction
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.29-36
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• 2024

Cellular prion protein (PrP^C) encoded at Prnp gene is well-known to form a misfolded isoform, termed scrapie PrP (PrP^SC) that cause transmissible degenerative diseases in central nervous system. The physiological role of PrP^C has been proposed by many studies, showing that PrP^C interacts with various intracellular, membrane, and extracellular molecules including mitochondrial inner membrane as a scaffold. PrP^C is expressed in most cell types including reproductive organs. Numerous studies using PrP^C knockout rodent models found no obvious phenotypic changes, in particular the clear phenotypes in development and reproduction have not demonstrated in these knockout models. However, various roles of PrP^C have been evaluated at the cellular levels. In this review, we summarized the known roles of PrP^C in various cell types and tissues with a special emphasis on those involved in reproduction.

• Journal of the Korean Magnetic Resonance Society
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.85-105
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• 1998

Prions cause neurodegenerative diseases in animals and humans. The scrapie prion protein (PrPSc) is the major-possibly only-component of the infectious prion and is generated from the cellular isoform (PrPC) by a conformational change. Limited proteolysis of PrPSc produces an polypeptide comprised primarily of residues 90 to 231, which retains infectivity. The three-dimensional structure of rPrP(90-231), a recombinant protein resembling PrPC with the Syrian hamster (SHa) sequence, was solved using multidimensional NMR. Low-resolution structures of rPrP(90-231), synthetic peptides up to 56 residues, a longer (29-231, full-length) protein with SHa sequence, and a short here further structure refinement of rPrP(90-231) and dynamic features of the protein. Consideration of these features in the context of published data suggests regions of conformational heterogeneity, structural elements involved in the PrPC\longrightarrowPrPSc transformation, and possible structural features related to a species barrier to transmission of prion diseases.

• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.313-321
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• 2018

Anti-cancer drug resistance is a major problem in colorectal cancer (CRC) research. Although several studies have revealed the mechanism of cancer drug resistance, molecular targets for chemotherapeutic combinations remain elusive. To address this issue, we focused on the expression of cellular prion protein ($PrP^C$) in 5-FU-resistant CRC cells. In 5-FU-resistant CRC cells, $PrP^C$ expression is significantly increased, compared with that in normal CRC cells. In the presence of 5-FU, $PrP^C$ increased CRC cell survival and proliferation by maintaining the activation of the PI3K-Akt signaling pathway and the expression of cell cycle-associated proteins, including cyclin E, CDK2, cyclin D1, and CDK4. In addition, $PrP^C$ inhibited the activation of the stress-associated proteins p38, JNK, and p53. Moreover, after treatment of 5-FU-resistant CRC cells with 5-FU, silencing of $PrP^C$ triggered apoptosis via the activation of caspase-3. These results indicate that $PrP^C$ plays a key role in CRC drug resistance. The novel strategy of combining chemotherapy with $PrP^C$ targeting may yield efficacious treatments of colorectal cancer.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.43 no.2
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• pp.91-96
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• 2015

Prions are proteinaceous infectious particles that cause neurodegenerative diseases, such as scrapie in sheep, bovine spongiform encephalopathy in cattle and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) in humans. Although the detailed process, regarding the abnormal conversion of prion proteins (PrP), remains to be fully elucidated, a number of environmental factors appear to affect the formation of misfolded PrP, termed PrP^Sc. Because oceanic algae contain mycosporine-like amino acids (MAAs), which exhibit cellular defensive activities under a variety of stress conditions, we investigated the level of PrP^Sc in prion-infected neuroblastoma cells using mycosporine-glycine, porphyra-334 and shinorine. When judged by the level of protease-resistant PrP^Sc in western blots, porphyra-334 and shinorine increased the level of PrP^Sc in cells, but mycosporine-glycine did not. The current results indicate that the MAAs tested in this study enhance the formation of PrP^Sc.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Service
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.393-405
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• 2005

In prion pathogenesis, the structural conversion of the cellular prion protein $(PrP^c)$ to its abnormal isomer $(PrP^{Sc})$ is believed to be a major event. The susceptibility or resistance to natural sheep scrapie is associated with polymorphisms of host PrP gene (PRNP) at amino acid residues 136, to a lesser extent 154. The 112 residue in ovine PrP displays a natural polymorphism, Methionine to Threonine, which has not been thoroughly investigated. However the cell-free conversion assay showed that ARQ with Thr112 $(T_{112}ARQ)^{1)}$ presents lower convertibility to $PrP^{Sc}$than wild type ARQ $(M_{112}ARQ)$ [1] In this study we generated ovine recombinant PrPs of 112 allelic variants by metal chelate affinity chromatography and cation exchange chromatography. The final purity of the ovine PrP ARQ was more than $95\%$. These variants showed similar immunoreactivity against anti-PrP monoclonal antibodies in Western blot and ELISA. The refolded $M_{112}ARQ$ and $M_{112}ARQ$ presented the secondary structural content to similar extent via CD spectroscopy analysis. The inherited structural features of $M_{112}ARQ$ and $M_{112}ARQ$ under the different biophysical conditions are in the middle of investigation.

• BMB Reports
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• v.40 no.5
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• pp.662-669
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• 2007

Although the function of cellular prion protein (PrP$^C$) and the pathogenesis of prion diseases have been widely described, the mechanisms are not fully clarified. In this study, increases of the portion of non-glycosylated prion protein deposited in the hamster brains infected with scrapie strain 263K were described. To elucidate the pathological role of glycosylation profile of PrP, wild type human PrP (HuPrP) and two genetic engineering generated non-glycosylated PrP mutants (N181Q/N197Q and T183A/T199A) were transiently expressed in human astrocytoma cell line SF126. The results revealed that expressions of non-glycosylated PrP induced significantly more apoptosis cells than that of wild type PrP. It illustrated that Bcl-2 proteins might be involved in the apoptosis pathway of non-glycosylated PrPs. Our data highlights that removal of glycosylation of prion protein provokes cells apoptosis.

• Molecules and Cells
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• v.27 no.6
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• pp.673-680
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• 2009

Conversion of the normal soluble form of prion protein, PrP ($PrP^C$), to proteinase K-resistant form ($PrP^{Sc}$) is a common molecular etiology of prion diseases. Proteinase K-resistance is attributed to a drastic conformational change from ${\alpha}$-helix to ${\beta}$-sheet and subsequent fibril formation. Compelling evidence suggests that membranes play a role in the conformational conversion of PrP. However, biophysical mechanisms underlying the conformational changes of PrP and membrane binding are still elusive. Recently, we demonstrated that the putative transmembrane domain (TMD; residues 111-135) of Syrian hamster PrP penetrates into the membrane upon the reduction of the conserved disulfide bond of PrP. To understand the mechanism underlying the membrane insertion of the TMD, here we explored changes in conformation and membrane binding abilities of PrP using wild type and cysteine-free mutant. We show that the reduction of the disulfide bond of PrP removes motional restriction of the TMD, which might, in turn, expose the TMD into solvent. The released TMD then penetrates into the membrane. We suggest that the disulfide bond regulates the membrane binding mode of PrP by controlling the motional freedom of the TMD.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.27 no.5
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• pp.1023-1031
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• 2017

The conformational change of cellular prion protein ($PrP^C$) to its misfolded counterpart, termed $PrP^{Sc}$, is mediated by a hypothesized cellular cofactor. This cofactor is believed to interact directly with certain amino acid residues of $PrP^C$. When these are mutated into cationic amino acid residues, $PrP^{Sc}$ formation and prion replication halt in a dominant negative (DN) manner, presumably due to strong binding of the cofactor to mutated $PrP^C$, designated as DN PrP mutants. Previous studies demonstrated that plasminogen and its kringle domains bind to PrP and accelerate $PrP^{Sc}$ generation. In this study, in vitro binding analysis of kringle domains of plasminogen to Q167R DN mutant PrP (PrPQ167R) was performed in parallel with the wild type (WT) and Q218K DN mutant PrP (PrPQ218K). The binding affinity of PrPQ167R was higher than that of WT PrP, but lower than that of PrPQ218K. Scatchard analysis further indicated that, like PrPQ218K and WT PrP, PrPQ167R interaction with plasminogen occurred at multiple sites, suggesting cooperativity in this interaction. Competitive binding analysis using $\small{L}$-lysine or $\small{L}$-arginine confirmed the increase of the specificity and binding affinity of the interaction as PrP acquired DN mutations. Circular dichroism spectroscopy demonstrated that the recombinant PrPs used in this study retained the ${\alpha}$-helix-rich structure. The ${\alpha}$-helix unfolding study revealed similar conformational stability for WT and DN-mutated PrPs. This study provides an additional piece of biochemical evidence concerning the interaction of plasminogen with DN mutant PrPs.