Amyloidogenic regions in beta-strands II and III modulate the aggregation and toxicity of SOD1 in living cells

Mutations in the protein superoxide dismutase-1 (SOD1) promote its misfolding and aggregation, ultimately causing familial forms of the debilitating neurodegenerative disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Currently, over 220 (mostly missense) ALS-causing mutations in the SOD1 protein have been identified throughout the primary sequence, indicating that common structural features responsible for aggregation and toxicity may be present. Here, we used in silico tools to predict amyloidogenic regions in the ALS-associated SOD1-G85R mutant, finding 7 regions spread throughout the protein structure. We found that the introduction of proline residues into β-strands II (I18P) or III (I35P) reduced the aggregation propensity and toxicity of SOD1-G85R in living cells, significantly more so than proline mutations in other amyloidogenic regions. The I18P and I35P mutations also reduced the capability of SOD1-G85R to template onto previously formed non-proline mutant SOD1 aggregates as measured by fluorescence recovery after photobleaching. Finally, we found that, while the I18P and I35P mutants are less structurally stable than SOD1-G85R, the proline mutants are less aggregation-prone during proteasome inhibition, and less toxic overall. Our research highlights the importance of a previously underappreciated SOD1 amyloidogenic region in β-strand II ( ¹⁵ QGIINF ²⁰ ) to the aggregation and toxicity of SOD1 in ALS mutants, and suggests that β-strands II and III may be good targets for the development of SOD1-associated ALS therapies.