| 摘要 |
The invention provides an alternative method of reversible aggregation and/or dissociation of polypeptides. Proteins or polypeptides according to the invention have an inherent aggregation capability, wherein the aggregation is an oligomerization of the polypeptide that is based on the presence and the strucuture of peptide repeats localized in a flexibly disordered domain of this polypeptide. The flexibly disordered domain comprising the peptide repeats preferrably is located in close proximity with the N-terminus of the protein amino acid sequence. Preferably, each of the peptide repeats has a sequence that comprises one to four identical octapeptides with the amino acid sequence: PHGGGWGQ. Preferred proteins are selected from the group comprising cellular prion proteins (PrP<c>) and engineered polypeptides or fusion proteins with a respective inherent reversible aggregation and dissociation capability. Because of the new mechanism of aggregation, the oligomerization reaction of the protein is reversible in a fluidic environment depending on the pH of this fluidic environment. Oligomerization occurs at a pH of 6.2 to 7.8, and the dissociation into monomers is reported to be at a pH range of 4.5 to 5.5. |
