Characterization of Beta-2-Glycoprotein I Domain V interaction with Plasma Membrane

Abstract

Beta-2-Glycoprotein I (β2GPI), also known as apolipoprotein H, is a 48kDa protein which circulates in blood at a high concentration [0.2 mg/ml]. β2GPI is the main target of autoantibodies in antiphospholipid syndrome (APS) which results in thrombosis and/or recurrent miscarriage. Therefore, investigating membrane binding mechanism of β2GPI is important to elucidate how this protein become immunogenic upon binding to plasma membrane and to help target specific drug development for APS. It is known that β2GPI binds to anionic phospholipids in the plasma membrane via its positively charged domain V (DV) but the mechanism of binding is still elusive. in this study, we performed multiple 500-ns molecular dynamics simulations of β2GPI-DV in the presence of membranes containing PC and PS in varying compositions employing the HMMM (highly mobile membrane mimetic) model. We observed stable membrane binding in eight out of ten replicas. Our results show that in seven out of eight replicas, β2GPI-DV interacts with the membrane via its flexible loop (311-317) which insert into the membrane below the PO4 level. interestingly, in one replica we observe insertion of the loop carrying three lysine residues, a mode which closely corresponds to an alternative binding mode reported previously. The orientation of membrane-bound states was characterized by measuring the tilt angle between the protein and the membrane. After insertion of the flexible loop, β2GPI-DV held an average tilt angle of 92 with respect to the membrane normal. This study establishes the significance of the flexible loop for membrane binding of β2GPI which could lead to a more rational approach in drug design for treatment of APS.