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Brain plaque deposits of amyloid-beta peptide (Abeta) is a pathological hallmark of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and apolipoprotein E (apoE) is thought to be involved in its deposition. One hypothesis for the role of apoE in the pathogenesis of AD is that apoE may be involved in deposition or clearance of Abeta by direct protein-to-protein interaction. Lipidated apoE4 bound preferentially to an intermediate aggregated form of Abeta and formed two- to three-fold more binding complexes than isoforms apoE2 or apoE3. The interaction was detected by a sandwich ELISA with capture antibodies specific for the N-terminus of apoE, whereas the interaction was not recognized with a C-terminal antibody. The observations indicate that the C-terminus of apoE4 interacts with the intermediate form of Abeta. The differential risk of AD related to apoE genotype may be the result of an enhanced capacity of apoE4 binding to an intermediate aggregated form of Abeta.

Cholesteryl ester transfer protein (CETP) has at least one unpaired sulfhydryl residue, which we have shown previously to be in or near the active site region. We investigated the location of this unpaired cysteine residue(s) of CETP using chemical modification with fluorescent sulfhydryl-specific reagents, limited proteolysis, and amino acid/sequence analysis. The kinetics of labeling CETP by either 2-(4'-maleimidylanilino)-naphthalene-6-sulfonic acid (MIANS) or acrylodan were followed by observing the increase in fluorescence of the bound probes. Labeling was inhibited strongly by preincubation of the CETP with either PNU-617, a competitive inhibitor of cholesteryl ester (CE) transport, and TP2 antibody. In addition, the transfer activities of the substrate CE by the modified CETP's were also inhibited but not competitively. Finally, preincubation of the native protein with N-ethylmaleimide (NEM) resulted in inhibition of activity that was dependent upon the time of exposure of the protein to the alkylating agent. These results provide further evidence that there is a cysteine residue in the active site region of CETP and ligands that either react or bind to this residue produce steric hindrance to CE transfer activity. Finally, although not conclusive, results of the protein chemistry experiments with the modified CETP suggest that the cysteine residue at position 333 is unpaired.

The amphiphilic pyrrolopyrimidine, U-104067, is a fluorophore ideally suited to report on the relative hydrophobicities of different microenvironments. It forms stable monomolecular layers at the air/water interface with a limiting molecular area of 51.9 +/- 0.3 A2/molecule and a collapse pressure of about 18 dyn/cm. Differential scanning calorimetry of its mixed liposomes with dipalmitoyllecithin shows full solubility of the compound in the liquid disordered phase and insolubility in the solid ordered phase. In aqueous solutions, the compound binds to phospholipid bilayers with a stoichiometry of 13.2 +/- 1.2 moles of lipid per mole of U-104067, with Kd = 0.33 +/- 0.05 microM toward egg lecithin/phosphatidylserine bilayers and Kd = 1.5 +/- 0.3 microM toward pure egg lecithin bilayers. In liquid crystalline phospholipid bilayers the compound behaves as two independently emitting species, one accessible to acrylamide and the other one not. Doxyl fatty acid methyl esters quench both species and show that the average position of the fluorophore is at a depth corresponding to that of the 7th carbon of a fatty acyl chain. Dissolved in the liquid disordered (L alpha) phase of dipalmitoyllecithin at 45 degrees C, U-104067 shows a single ionizable group, pKa = 3.19 +/- 0.03 while in the solid ordered (L beta) phase it displays two ionizable groups, pKa1 = 4.99 +/- 0.10 and pKa2 = 6.96 +/- 0.13. The most unusual property of this molecule is that it is miscible with the tilted (L beta) and liquid (L alpha) phases of dipalmitoyllecithin but totally immiscible with the rippled (P beta) phase. Because of this, U-104067 is a sensitive reporter for the tilted/rippled phase transition as monitored by its fluorescence anisotropy and its quantum yield changes.

A continuous recording fluorescence assay was developed for cholesteryl ester transfer protein (CETP). The assay measures the increase in fluorescence accompanying the relocation of fluorescent lipids, cholesteryl esters and triglycerides, from a donor emulsion to an acceptor emulsion. In the absence of CETP, the quantum yields of the fluorescent lipids is low because their high concentrations in the donor emulsions result in self-quenching. CETP catalyzes the redistribution of the fluorescent lipids from the donor to the acceptor emulsions and fluorescence increases substantially. Efficient sonication and incorporation of apolipoproteins from human HDL into the emulsions significantly increased the transfer rates. Under optimal conditions, the redistribution of fluorescent compounds reaches equilibrium within < 30 min and the kinetics of this process are consistent with a simple, first-order reaction pathway. The redistribution kinetics support a mechanism of adsorption --> exchange --> desorption --> diffusion.

The hypoosmotic lysis curve of freshly collected human erythrocytes is consistent with a single Gaussian error function with a mean of 46.5 +/- 0.25 mM NaCl and a standard deviation of 5.0 +/- 0.4 mM NaCl. After extended storage of RBCs under standard blood bank conditions the lysis curve conforms to the sum of two error functions instead of a possible shift in the mean and a broadening of a single error function. Thus, two distinct sub-populations with different fragilities are present instead of a single, broadly distributed population. One population is identical to the freshly collected erythrocytes, whereas the other population consists of osmotically fragile cells. The rate of generation of the new, osmotically fragile, population of cells was used to probe the hypothesis that lipid peroxidation is responsible for the induction of membrane fragility. If it is so, then the antioxidant, tirilazad mesylate (U-74,006f), should protect against this degradation of stored erythrocytes. We found that tirilazad mesylate, at 17 microM (1.5 mol% with respect to membrane lecithin), retards significantly the formation of the osmotically fragile RBCs. Concomitantly, the concentration of free hemoglobin which accumulates during storage is markedly reduced by the drug. Since the presence of the drug also decreases the amount of F2-isoprostanes formed during the storage period, an antioxidant mechanism must be operative. These results demonstrate that tirilazad mesylate significantly decreases the number of fragile erythrocytes formed during storage in the blood bank.

The steady-state and dynamic fluorescence properties of the membrane potential-sensitive bis-oxonol dye Dibac4(3) were characterized in vitro using model ligand systems and in vivo in A10 smooth muscle cells by fluorescence microscopy in conjunction with the ACAS imaging system. In the latter system the dye responds to potassium ion-induced jumps in membrane potential with changes in its fluorescence intensity, which follow pseudo-first-order kinetics. The relationship between the magnitude of the changes and the corresponding rate constants excludes the possibility that a simple, one-step equilibrium between extracellular and cytoplasmic dye would be sufficient to account for this phenomenon. The necessity of invoking an additional step suggested that the redistribution of the free dye between the cytoplasm and the exocellular medium is rapid and that the slow step associated with the fluorescence changes may be the interaction of the dye with proteins in the cytoplasm, along the lines proposed by Bräuner et al. (Biochim. Biophys. Acta 771 (1984), 208, 216). The interaction of the dye with BSA and with egg lecithin SUVs was studied as a model for the in vivo phenomenon. The dependence of fluorescence intensity changes on the concentrations of the reagents shows the formation of a reversible dye/albumin complex with a 2/1-stoichiometry, with Kd = 0.03 +/- 0.01 microM and a reversible adsorption to the SUVs with Kd 0.45 +/- 0.08 microM. The fluorescence lifetime of the dye in solution, < 100 ps, results in a high solution steady-state anisotropy. The latter decreases considerably upon binding to BSA, SUVs and A10 cells concomitant with a large increase in the lifetime. With such a short lifetime of the free dye, selective gating of the excitation source or the photodetector should eliminate the high background of the unbound dye and thereby enhance the sensitivity of the system.

Three fluorescent, lipophilic, heterocyclic antioxidants were incorporated into lipid bilayers and exposed to depth-dependent nitroxyl fatty acid quenchers. The Stern-Volmer plots curved upward at low quencher concentrations. Quantitative analysis of the results showed that this behavior is consistent with complex formation between quencher and fluorescent antioxidant, where the complex is 2-3 times more fluorescent than the parent fluorophore. At higher quencher concentrations, both free antioxidant and 'bright complex' are quenched dynamically, albeit quenching of the latter is less efficient. The complex probably results from ionic, hydrogen bond and pi-pi interactions. Formation of such a 'bright complex' is also observable in a homogeneous solution of the reactants in cyclohexane. Additional evidence for the complexation of these antioxidants with fatty acids in lipid bilayers is provided by the fact that energy transfer from the antioxidants to anthroyloxy fatty acids occurs at surface concentrations where radiative energy transfer between free molecules should be not be efficient. For directly probing the relative depths of these fluorophores in lipid bilayers we used the aqueous quenchers acrylamide and iodide. They showed that in terms of increasing depth in the bilayer, the order was U-78, 517f < U-78,518e < U-75,412e. Our results, in toto, demonstrate that the Lazaroid antioxidants are incorporated into the lipid bilayer where they occupy strictly defined positions and orientations. Complexation with fatty acyl chains should be mechanistically relevant, since it may enhance antioxidant activity by hindering free radical chain propagation.