Ko, Li‐wen

ABSTRACT The accumulation of filamentous a‐synuclein (α‐S) is associated with Parkinson's disease. It remains controversial as to the mode (antiparallel or parallel) of α‐S self‐assembly and whether an exact alignment of the central hydrophobic region is essential. In the present study, we performed in vitro assembly using α‐S with or without the attachment of artificial leucine zippers (Zips) capable of forming either parallel or antiparallel coiled coils and included a spacer in one derivative. Results showed that Zips accelerate filament assembly in both the parallel and antiparallel fashions, that a precise alignment of the central hydrophobic region is not essential, and that the antiparallel pairs displayed the highest thioflavin T signals. More importantly, cells expressing Zip‐fused α‐S, but not α‐S alone, formed α‐S immunopositive and thioflavin S‐positive inclusions in 7 days. The results suggest that α‐S can assemble in both parallel and antiparallel modes but have a higher tendency to assemble in the latter mode and that cells overexpressing Zip‐fused α‐S may be used to screen α‐S assembly inhibitors due to enhanced ability to form inclusions.—Jiang, P., Ko, L., Jansen, K. R., Golde, T. E., Yen, S.‐H. Using leucine zipper to facilitate α‐synuclein assembly. FASEB J. 22, 3165–3174 (2008)