scholarly journals Biochemical and biophysical characterisation of immunoglobulin free light chains derived from an initially unbiased population of patients with light chain disease

PeerJ ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
pp. e8771
Author(s):  
Rebecca Sternke-Hoffmann ◽  
Amelie Boquoi ◽  
David Lopez Y. Niedenhoff ◽  
Florian Platten ◽  
Roland Fenk ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Patient Group ◽  
Light Chain ◽  
Amyloid Fibrils ◽  
Biochemical Properties ◽  
Kidney Damage ◽  
Light Chains ◽  
Amyloid Formation ◽  
High Concentration ◽  
Light Chain Disease

In light chain (LC) diseases, monoclonal immunoglobulin LCs are abundantly produced with the consequence in some cases to form deposits of a fibrillar or amorphous nature affecting various organs, such as heart and kidney. The factors that determine the solubility of any given LC in vivo are still not well understood. We hypothesize that some of the biochemical properties of the LCs that have been shown to correlate with amyloid fibril formation in patients also can be used as predictors for the degree of kidney damage in a patient group that is only biased by protein availability. We performed detailed biochemical and biophysical investigations of light chains extracted and purified from the urine of a group of 20 patients with light chain disease. For all samples that contained a sufficiently high concentration of LC, we quantified the unfolding temperature of the LCs, the monomer-dimer distribution, the digestibility by trypsin and the formation of amyloid fibrils under various conditions of pH and reducing agent. We correlated the results of our biophysical and biochemical experiments with the degree of kidney damage in the patient group and found that most of these parameters do not correlate with kidney damage as defined by clinical parameters. However, the patients with the greatest impairment of kidney function have light chains which display very poor digestibility by trypsin. Most of the LC properties reported before to be predictors of amyloid formation cannot be used to assess the degree of kidney damage. Our finding that poor trypsin digestibility correlates with kidney damage warrants further investigation in order to probe a putative mechanistic link between these factors.

scholarly journals Comparative study of the stabilities of synthetic in vitro and natural ex vivo transthyretin amyloid fibrils

2020 ◽  
Vol 295 (33) ◽  
pp. 11379-11387 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sara Raimondi ◽  
P. Patrizia Mangione ◽  
Guglielmo Verona ◽  
Diana Canetti ◽  
Paola Nocerino ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Thermodynamic Stability ◽  
Amyloid Fibrils ◽  
Current Knowledge ◽  
Ex Vivo ◽  
Biochemical Properties ◽  
Amyloid Formation ◽  
Free Energies

Systemic amyloidosis caused by extracellular deposition of insoluble fibrils derived from the pathological aggregation of circulating proteins, such as transthyretin, is a severe and usually fatal condition. Elucidation of the molecular pathogenic mechanism of the disease and discovery of effective therapies still represents a challenging medical issue. The in vitro preparation of amyloid fibrils that exhibit structural and biochemical properties closely similar to those of natural fibrils is central to improving our understanding of the biophysical basis of amyloid formation in vivo and may offer an important tool for drug discovery. Here, we compared the morphology and thermodynamic stability of natural transthyretin fibrils with those of fibrils generated in vitro either using the common acidification procedure or primed by limited selective cleavage by plasmin. The free energies for fibril formation were −12.36, −8.10, and −10.61 kcal mol−1, respectively. The fibrils generated via plasmin cleavage were more stable than those prepared at low pH and were thermodynamically and morphologically similar to natural fibrils extracted from human amyloidotic tissue. Determination of thermodynamic stability is an important tool that is complementary to other methods of structural comparison between ex vivo fibrils and fibrils generated in vitro. Our finding that fibrils created via an in vitro amyloidogenic pathway are structurally similar to ex vivo human amyloid fibrils does not necessarily establish that the fibrillogenic pathway is the same for both, but it narrows the current knowledge gap between in vitro models and in vivo pathophysiology.

scholarly journals Barriers to Small Molecule Drug Discovery for Systemic Amyloidosis

Molecules ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 26 (12) ◽  
pp. 3571
Author(s):  
Gareth J. Morgan
Keyword(s):  
Small Molecules ◽  
Light Chain ◽  
Amyloid Fibrils ◽  
Systemic Amyloidosis ◽  
Light Chains ◽  
Al Amyloidosis ◽  
Amyloid Formation ◽  
Amyloid Fibril Formation ◽  
Amyloid Light Chain

Inhibition of amyloid fibril formation could benefit patients with systemic amyloidosis. In this group of diseases, deposition of amyloid fibrils derived from normally soluble proteins leads to progressive tissue damage and organ failure. Amyloid formation is a complex process, where several individual steps could be targeted. Several small molecules have been proposed as inhibitors of amyloid formation. However, the exact mechanism of action for a molecule is often not known, which impedes medicinal chemistry efforts to develop more potent molecules. Furthermore, commonly used assays are prone to artifacts that must be controlled for. Here, potential mechanisms by which small molecules could inhibit aggregation of immunoglobulin light-chain dimers, the precursor proteins for amyloid light-chain (AL) amyloidosis, are studied in assays that recapitulate different aspects of amyloidogenesis in vitro. One molecule reduced unfolding-coupled proteolysis of light chains, but no molecules inhibited aggregation of light chains or disrupted pre-formed amyloid fibrils. This work demonstrates the challenges associated with drug development for amyloidosis, but also highlights the potential to combine therapies that target different aspects of amyloidosis.

scholarly journals Inhibition by small-molecule ligands of formation of amyloid fibrils of an immunoglobulin light chain variable domain

eLife ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
Author(s):  
Boris Brumshtein ◽  
Shannon R Esswein ◽  
Lukasz Salwinski ◽  
Martin L Phillips ◽  
Alan T Ly ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Small Molecule ◽  
Light Chain ◽  
Amyloid Fibrils ◽  
Variable Domain ◽  
Light Chains ◽  
Amyloid Formation ◽  
Immunoglobulin Light Chains ◽  
Immunoglobulin Light Chain ◽  
Small Molecule Ligands ◽  
Irreversible Aggregation

Overproduction of immunoglobulin light chains leads to systemic amyloidosis, a lethal disease characterized by the formation of amyloid fibrils in patients' tissues. Excess light chains are in equilibrium between dimers and less stable monomers which can undergo irreversible aggregation to the amyloid state. The dimers therefore must disassociate into monomers prior to forming amyloid fibrils. Here we identify ligands that inhibit amyloid formation by stabilizing the Mcg light chain variable domain dimer and shifting the equilibrium away from the amyloid-prone monomer.

scholarly journals Double light-chain disease: a case report.

1979 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 190-192 ◽  
Author(s):  
F R Dalal ◽  
S Winsten
Keyword(s):  
Multiple Myeloma ◽  
Case Report ◽  
Column Chromatography ◽  
Light Chain ◽  
Clinical Studies ◽  
Light Chains ◽  
Light Chain Disease

Abstract A patient with massive proteinuria was discovered to have double light-chain disease. Immunological studies demonstrated monoclonal light chains of both the lambda and kappa type in urine. The light chains were separate and distinct and were not found to be a part of any of the whole molecule immunoglobulins such as IgG, IgM, IgA, IgD, or IgE. Uniqueness of the proteins was confirmed by column chromatography. Clinical studies showed that the patient had multiple myeloma.

An Essential Role of the Factor VIII Light Chain in Facilitating Heavy Chain Secretion.

Blood ◽  
2006 ◽  
Vol 108 (11) ◽  
pp. 4034-4034
Author(s):  
Lingxia Chen ◽  
Juan Li ◽  
Hui Lu ◽  
Haiyan Jiang ◽  
Rita Sarkar ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Gene Therapy ◽  
Factor Viii ◽  
Heavy Chain ◽  
Light Chain ◽  
Hek293 Cells ◽  
Light Chains ◽  
Trans Splicing ◽  
In Cis

Abstract Blood coagulation Factor VIII (FVIII) is secreted as a heterodimer consisting of a heavy and light chain. Both in vitro and in vivo studies have demonstrated that these chains can be expressed independently. The expressed heavy and light chains can reassociate with recovery of biological activities. These observations have been particularly useful in a gene therapy setting since vector packaging capacity for adeno-associated virus (AAV) is a limiting factor. However, it has been demonstrated that the FVIII heavy chain is expressed ~10–100-fold less efficiently compared to the light chain when expressed independently. Previously the FVIII F309S mutation in the context of B-domainless FVIII (FVIII-BDD) and enhanced glycosylations within the B-domain have been shown to improve factor VIII expression and secretion. However, our in vitro studies indicate that these improvements in secretion were not retained when expressing the heavy chain alone with the same modifications. Other sequences, possibly in the light chain, may facilitate secretion. To investigate this further, we designed an intein trans-splicing strategy to control the addition of light chain to the heavy chain before secretion. Using HEK293 cells, we cotransfected seperate intein light chain and intein heavy chain plasmids and compared results to single plasmid transfected cells. 48 hours post-transfection, FVIII-specific ELISA results demonstrated that cotransfection of intein heavy chain and intein light chain had a significant influence on total heavy chain secretion compared to intein heavy chain expression alone. The co-transfected intein heavy chain and intein light chain were efficiently ligated together yielding a biologically active single chain FVIII derivative as demonstrated by clotting assays and Western blot analysis. Therefore, heavy chain secretion was directly enhanced by the attachment of the light chain to the C-terminus of the heavy chain. A similar phenomenon was not found when heavy and light chains were simply co-expressed in the same cell. It suggested that light chain functioned in cis. Hydrodynamic injection of plasmids with intein heavy chain and intein light chain into hemophilia A mice led to a much higher level of FVIII secretion. The amount of functional FVIII expression reached 3–6 units/ml at peak level. In the absence of intein light chain, FVIII heavy chain secretion was approximately 100 fold less efficient in vivo. To map the key elements of FVIII light in helping FVIII secretion, we made deletion variants in the light chain. These mutants had a dominant negative effect in reducing FVIII and FVIII heavy chain secretion while increasing the level of intracellular FVIII accumulation. Collectively our results are consistent with the conclusion that the FVIII light chain plays a critical role in facilitating heavy chain secretion in cis; probably through helping FVIII heavy chain maintain correct configuration and folding. The strategy to manipulate FVIII light chain addition through intein mediated trans-splicing reaction may also be explored for human gene therapy.

scholarly journals ERdj3, a Stress-inducible Endoplasmic Reticulum DnaJ Homologue, Serves as a CoFactor for BiP's Interactions with Unfolded Substrates

2005 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 40-50 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ying Shen ◽  
Linda M. Hendershot
Keyword(s):  
Endoplasmic Reticulum ◽  
Protein Folding ◽  
Atpase Activity ◽  
Light Chain ◽  
Light Chains ◽  
Nonpermissive Temperature ◽  
Protein Substrates ◽  
Unfolded Protein

We recently identified ERdj3 as a component of unassembled immunoglobulin (Ig) heavy chain:BiP complexes. ERdj3 also associates with a number of other protein substrates, including unfolded light chains, a nonsecreted Ig light chain mutant, and the VSV-G ts045 mutant at the nonpermissive temperature. We produced an ERdj3 mutant that was unable to stimulate BiP's ATPase activity in vitro or to bind BiP in vivo. This mutant retained the ability to interact with unfolded protein substrates, suggesting that ERdj3 binds directly to proteins instead of via interactions with BiP. BiP remained bound to unfolded light chains longer than ERdj3, which interacted with unfolded light chains initially, but quickly disassociated before protein folding was completed. This suggests that ERdj3 may bind first to substrates and serve to inhibit protein aggregation until BiP joins the complex, whereas BiP remains bound until folding is complete. Moreover, our findings support a model where interactions with BiP help trigger the release of ERdj3 from the substrate:BiP complex.

Light chain disease and massive proteinuria.

1985 ◽  
Vol 31 (3) ◽  
pp. 475-477 ◽  
Author(s):  
F Lessard ◽  
P Bannon ◽  
R Lepage ◽  
J G Joly
Keyword(s):  
Renal Failure ◽  
Light Chain ◽  
Light Chains ◽  
Light Chain Disease ◽  
Bence Jones Proteinuria

Abstract We describe the case of a 64-year-old man with lambda type light chain disease, in whom panhypogammaglobulinemia was associated with anemia, massive Bence Jones proteinuria (24.6 g/L), and renal failure. Lambda type light chains were present in the serum.

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