Conformational detection of prion protein with biarsenical labeling and FlAsH fluorescence

Prion diseases are associated with the misfolding of the host-encoded cellular prion protein (PrPC) into a disease associated form (PrPSc). Recombinant PrP can be refolded into either an alpha-helical rich conformation (alpha-PrP) resembling PrPC or a P-sheet rich. protease resistant form similar to PrPSc. Here, we generated tetracysteine tagged recombinant PrP, folded this into alpha- or beta-PrP and determined the levels of FlAsH fluorescence. Insertion of the tetracysteine tag at three different sites within the 91-111 epitope readily distinguished beta-PrP from alpha-PrP upon FlAsH labeling. Labelling of tetracysteine tagged PrP in the alpha-helical form showed minimal fluorescence, whereas labeling of tagged PrP in the beta-sheet form showed high fluorescence indicating that this region is exposed upon conversion. This highlights a region of PrP that can be implicated in the development of diagnostics and is a novel, protease free mechanism for distinguishing PrPSc from PrPC. This technique may also be applied to any protein that undergoes conformational change and/or misfolding Such as those involved in other neurodegenerative disorders including Alzheimer's, Huntington's and Parkinson's diseases. (C) 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.