Common molecular pathogenesis of disease-related intrinsically disordered proteins revealed by NMR analysis

Intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs) are either completely unstructured or contain large disordered regions in their native state; they have drawn much attention in the field of molecular pathology. Some of them substantially tend to form protein self-assemblies, such as toxic or non-toxic aggregates and fibrils, and have been postulated to relate to diseases. These disease-related IDPs include A beta(1-42) [Alzheimer's disease (AD)], Tau (AD and tauopathy), alpha-synuclein (Parkinson's disease) and p53 (cancer). Several studies suggest that these aggregation and/or fibril formation processes are often initiated by transient conformational changes of the IDPs prior to protein self-assembly. Interestingly, the pathological molecular processes of these IDPs share multiple common features with those of protein misfolding diseases, such as transmissible spongiform encephalopathy (PrPsc) and AL-amyloidosis (V-L-domain of gamma-immunoglobulin). This review provides an overview of solution NMR techniques that can help analyse the early and transient events of conformational equilibrium of IDPs and folded proteins.