Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is known as one of the most popular forms of dementia affecting numerous people worldwide. The Amyloid beta (Aβ) peptides form oligomeric conformations that cause the intracellular Ca²⁺ and Zn²⁺ abnormality leading to the death of neuron cells. The failure of AD therapy targeting Aβ oligomers probably caused by misunderstanding the ions transport through transmembrane Aβ (tmAβ) ion-like channel since Aβ oligomers transiently exist in a mixture environment involving various order of Aβ oligomers. The high-resolution of tmAβ peptides are thus unavailable until the date. Fortunately, computational approaches are able to complement the missing experimental structures. The transmembrane 4Aβ_1-42 (tm4Aβ_1-42) barrel, one of the most neurotoxic elements, was thus predicted in the previous work. Therefore, in this context, the Ca²⁺/Zn²⁺ ions transport through the tm4Aβ_1-42 barrel was investigated by using the fast pulling of ligand (FPL) and umbrella sampling (US) methods. Good consistent results were obtained implying that Ca²⁺ ion transport through tm4Aβ_1-42 barrel with a lower free energy barrier compared with Zn²⁺ ion. The obtained results about Ca²⁺/Zn²⁺ transport across tmAβ_1-42 barrel probably enhances the AD therapy since we can design an inhibitor is able to block the transport.

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1 results in Tetramer barrel in Keywords: Tetramer barrel

In Silico Probing Ca2+ and Zn2+ Permeable Transmembrane 4Aβ1-42 Barrel

1 results in Keywords: Tetramer barrel