Open AccessEffect of Lauric Acid on the Stability of Aβ42 Oligomers
Author(s) -
Prabir Khatua,
Asis K. Jana,
Ulrich H. E. Hansmann
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
acs omega
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.779
H-Index - 40
ISSN - 2470-1343
DOI - 10.1021/acsomega.0c06211
Subject(s) - lauric acid , barrel (horology) , molecular dynamics , chemistry , fibril , fatty acid , biophysics , ring (chemistry) , crystallography , biochemistry , organic chemistry , materials science , biology , computational chemistry , composite material
While Alzheimer's disease is correlated with the presence of Aβ fibrils in patient brains, the more likely agents are their precursors, soluble oligomers that may form pores or otherwise distort cell membranes. Using all-atom molecular dynamics simulation, we study how the presence of fatty acids such as lauric acid changes the stability of pore-forming oligomers built from three-stranded Aβ 42 chains. Such a change would alter the distribution of amyloids in the fatty acid-rich brain environment and therefore could explain the lower polymorphism observed in Aβ fibrils derived from brains of patients with Alzheimer's disease. We find that lauric acid stabilizes both ring-like and barrel-shaped models, with the effect being stronger for barrel-like models than for ring-like oligomers.