Cross-Seeding Controls Aβ Fibril Populations and Resulting Functions

Amyloid peptides nucleate from monomers to aggregate into fibrils through primary nucleation. Pre-existing fibrils can then act as seeds for additional monomers to fibrillize through secondary nucleation. Both nucleation processes occur simultaneously, yielding a distribution of fibril polymorphs that can generate a spectrum of neurodegenerative effects. Understanding the mechanisms driving polymorph structural distribution during both nucleation processes is important for uncovering fibril structure-function relationships, as well as for creating polymorph distributions in vitro that better match fibril structures found in vivo. Here, we explore how cross-seeding wild-type (WT) A beta(1-40) with A beta(1-40) mutants E22G (Arctic) and E22 Delta (Osaka), as well as with WT A(beta 1-42), affects the distribution of fibril structural polymorphs and how changes in structural distribution impact toxicity. Transmission electron micros copy analysis revealed that fibril seeds derived from mutants of A beta(1-40) imparted their structure to WT A beta(1-40) monomers during secondary nucleation, but WT A beta(1-40) fibril seeds do not affect the structure of fibrils assembled from mutant A beta(1-40) monomers, despite the kinetic data indicating accelerated aggregation when cross-seeding of any combination of mutants. Additionally, WT A beta(1-40) fibrils seeded with mutant fibrils produced similar structural distributions to the mutant seeds with similar cytotoxicity profiles. This indicates that mutant fibril seeds not only impart their structure to growing WT A beta(1-40) aggregates but also impart cytotoxic properties. Our findings establish a relationship between the fibril structure and the phenotype on a polymorph population level and that these properties can be passed on through secondary nucleation to the succeeding generations of fibrils.