Evaluation of the Ability of Wasp Venom Bioinspired Peptides (Fraternine-10 and Octovespin) in the Disaggregation and Anti-Aggregation of Amyloid-β Fibrils.

Abstract

Many neurodegenerative diseases are directly related to the formation of toxic protein aggregates, such as Alzheimer's disease, which is associated with the aggregation of amyloid-beta (Aβ). In this context, protein fibrils are the hallmark of these neurodegenerative diseases. In this sense, developing compounds capable of preventing or reducing the formation of protein aggregation in the brain can be of fundamental importance for the curative treatment of these diseases. Animals' venom compounds are known to be selected for nervous system targets, therefore, they are considered an interesting platform for developing pharmacological tools. This work presents a study of the ligands Octovespin (bioinspired by the wasp venom Polybia occidentalis) and Fraternine-10 (bioinspired by the wasp venom Parachartergus fraternus) concerning the disaggregation and anti-aggregation of fibrils of Aβ(17-42) sheets. First, we performed in silico calculations using molecular docking and molecular dynamics simulations with 200 ns. The results indicate that Octovespin and Fraternine-10 interact with the Aβ protein fibrils throughout all simulation time. The RMSD, RMSF, number of hydrogen and radius of gyration values and the interactions with amino acids responsible for fibril aggregation demonstrate that both Octovespin and Fraternine-10 have a significant disaggregation potential, which corroborates the in vitro and in vivo experimental observations. Furthermore, experimental data of Fraternine-10 demonstrated an anti-aggregation effect, indicating that it can promote fibril disaggregation and prevent them from aggregating again to form oligomers. However, in vivo data of Fraternine-10 did not show improvement. Even though in vivo results were not promising, the in vitro and in silico discoveries qualify these molecules as potential sources for developing new candidates to become medicines against Alzheimer's disease.