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Prion protein-derived cell-penetrating peptide inhibits type II diabetes-associated islet amyloid polypeptide aggregation and cytotoxicity

Oh, Y.; Loganathan, P.; Howarth, M.; Maity, D.; Mustafa, M.; Kumar, S.; Hamilton, A.; Magzoub, M.

2025-10-10 biochemistry
10.1101/2025.10.09.681467 bioRxiv
Show abstract

Islet amyloid polypeptide (IAPP) is a 37-residue peptide hormone co-packaged and co-secreted with insulin by pancreatic {beta}-cells. A pathological hallmark of type II diabetes is the self-assembly of IAPP into {beta}-sheet rich amyloid fibers, which is associated with {beta}-cell impairment. Previously, we showed that a cell-penetrating peptide (CPP) construct, consisting of a hydrophobic signal sequence coupled to a polycationic nuclear localization signal (NLS)-like sequence, exhibited potent anti-prion activity and antagonism of Alzheimers disease-associated amyloid-{beta} (A{beta}) peptide aggregation and neurotoxicity. Here, we have extended this approach towards type II diabetes by assessing the efficacy of the CPP construct, designated as NCAM1-PrP, in inhibiting IAPP oligomerization, fiber formation and associated cytotoxicity. Using complementary in vitro and in silico experiments, we show that NCAM1-PrP effectively modulates IAPPs toxic structures into non-toxic conformations. This study underlines the potential of our designed CPP-based therapeutic approach as a versatile tool in the battle against amyloid-associated pathologies.

Published in Biochemistry (predicted rank #1) · training set

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