Functional Amyloids As Natural Storage of Peptide Hormones in Pituitary Secretory Granules

• DOI: 10.1126/science.1173155
• Publication Date: 2009-06-19T01:44:12Z
• Authors: Samir K. Maji; Marilyn H. Perrin; Michael R. Sawaya; Sebastian Jessberger; Krishna Vadodaria; Robert A. Rissman; Praful S. Singru; K. Peter R. Nilsson; Rozalyn Simon; David Schubert; David Eisenberg; Jean Rivier; Paul Sawchenko; Wylie Vale; Roland Riek
• Keywords: Neurons; 0301 basic medicine; Amyloid; Sheep; Cell Survival; Corticotropin-Releasing Hormone; Protein Conformation; Peptide Hormones; Secretory Vesicles; Heparin, Low-Molecular-Weight; Hydrogen-Ion Concentration; Rats; 3. Good health; Mice; Pituitary Hormones; 03 medical and health sciences; Adrenocorticotropic Hormone; Pituitary Gland, Posterior; Pituitary Gland, Anterior; Pituitary Gland; Animals; Humans; Urocortins

Plethora of Secretory Amyloids

Protein aggregation and the formation of amyloids are associated with several dozen pathological conditions in humans, including Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, and type II diabetes. In addition, a few functional amyloid systems are known: the prions of fungi, the bacterial protein curli, the protein of chorion of the eggshell of silkworm, and the amyloid protein Pmel-17 involved in mammalian skin pigmentation. Now

Maji et al.

(p. 328 , published online 18 June) propose that endocrine hormone peptides and proteins are stored in an amyloid-like state in secretory granules. Thus, the amyloid fold may represent a fundamental, ancient, and evolutionarily conserved protein structural motif that is capable of performing a wide variety of functions contributing to normal cell and tissue physiology.