Auer S, Kashchiev D.
Insight into the correlation between lag time and aggregation rate in the kinetics of protein aggregation.
Proteins 2010 Aug; 78(11): 2412-2416
Centre for Molecular Nanoscience, University of Leeds, Leeds, LS2 9JT, United Kingdom. s.auer@leeds.ac.uk [more]
Under favorable conditions, many proteins can assemble into
macroscopically large aggregates such as the amyloid fibrils
that are associated with Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and other
neurological and systemic diseases. The overall process of
protein aggregation is characterized by initial lag time during
which no detectable aggregation occurs in the solution and by
maximal aggregation rate at which the dissolved protein
converts into aggregates. In this study, the correlation
between the lag time and the maximal rate of protein
aggregation is analyzed. It is found that the product of these
two quantities depends on a single numerical parameter, the
kinetic index of the curve quantifying the time evolution of
the fraction of protein aggregated. As this index depends
relatively little on the conditions and/or system studied, our
finding provides insight into why for many experiments the
values of the product of the lag time and the maximal
aggregation rate are often equal or quite close to each other.
It is shown how the kinetic index is related to a basic kinetic
parameter of a recently proposed theory of protein
aggregation.
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