Scientific Reports (Jul 2017)

Zinc binding to RNA recognition motif of TDP-43 induces the formation of amyloid-like aggregates

  • Cyrille Garnier,
  • François Devred,
  • Deborah Byrne,
  • Rémy Puppo,
  • Andrei Yu. Roman,
  • Soazig Malesinski,
  • Andrey V. Golovin,
  • Régine Lebrun,
  • Natalia N. Ninkina,
  • Philipp O. Tsvetkov

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-07215-7
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 7, no. 1
pp. 1 – 10

Abstract

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Abstract Aggregation of TDP-43 (transactive response DNA binding protein 43 kDa) is a hallmark of certain forms of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD). Moreover, intracellular TDP-43-positive inclusions are often found in other neurodegenerative diseases. Recently it was shown that zinc ions can provoke the aggregation of endogenous TDP-43 in cells, allowing to assume a direct interaction of TDP-43 with zinc ions. In this work, we investigated zinc binding to the 102–269 TDP-43 fragment, which comprise the two RNA recognition motifs. Using isothermal titration calorimetry, mass spectrometry, and differential scanning fluorimetry, we showed that zinc binds to this TDP-43 domain with a dissociation constant in the micromolar range and modifies its tertiary structure leading to a decrease of its thermostability. Moreover, the study by dynamic light scattering and negative stain electron microscopy demonstrated that zinc ions induce auto-association process of this TDP-43 fragment into rope-like structures. These structures are thioflavin-T-positive allowing to hypothesize the direct implication of zinc ions in pathological aggregation of TDP-43.