The Effects of Temperature Changes on Human Prion Protein Conformation Using Molecular Dynamic Simulation

Prion diseases are neurodegenerative disorders which ultimately results in the death of their victims. They are caused by structural transformation of cellular prion (PrPC) to its β-rich and anomalous isoform (PrPSc) and the accumulation of amyloid fibrillar deposits in the central nervous system. The precise mechanism underling this conversion is yet to be well understood. This study aimed to investigate the effect of non physiological temperatures on the misfolding mechanism of the human prion protein. The crystal structure of human prion protein (90-231), (PDB code: 2Lej) in pdb format was used as a starting structure in this study. Three model structures of this coordinate structure were used separately to simulate PrPC at 27, 37 and 47. Molecular dynamic simulations were then performed using double-precision MPI version of GROMACS 4.5.5 for 10 ns and the results were analyzed using SPSS software, SPDBV and VebLab programs. The change of temperature from 37 to 27 or 47 induced significant structural changes to PrPC. These tempratures caused PrPC to attain a more folded and less flexible tertiary structure compared to its native structure at 37. They, also, reduce protein-solvent hydrogen bonds and therefore increasing access of hydrophobic solvent to PrPC which may be behind the lower water solubility of PrPC and its increased resistance to proteolytic degradations. This study shows that changes of temperatures accelerate structural changes of PrPC and reduce its solubility while rendering it vulnerable to transition into PrPSc.