Inhibition of Polyglutamine Misfolding with D-Enantiomeric Peptides Identified by Mirror Image Phage Display Selection

Nine heritable diseases are known that are caused by unphysiologically elongated polyglutamine tracts in human proteins leading to misfolding, aggregation and neurodegeneration. Current therapeutic strategies include efforts to inhibit the expression of the respective gene coding for the polyglutamine-containing proteins. There are, however, concerns that this may interfere with the physiological function of the respective protein. We aim to stabilize the protein's native conformation by D-enantiomeric peptide ligands to prevent misfolding and aggregation, shift the equilibrium between aggregates and monomers towards monomers and dissolve already existing aggregates into non-toxic and functional monomers. Here, we performed a mirror image phage display selection on the polyglutamine containing a fragment of the androgen receptor. An elongated polyglutamine tract in the androgen receptor causes spinal and bulbar muscular atrophy (SBMA). The selected D-enantiomeric peptides were tested for their ability to inhibit polyglutamine-induced androgen receptor aggregation. We identified D-enantiomeric peptide QF2D-2 (sqsqwstpqGkwshwprrr) as the most promising candidate. It binds to an androgen receptor fragment with 46 consecutive glutamine residues and decelerates its aggregation, even in seeded experiments. Therefore, QF2D-2 may be a promising drug candidate for SBMA treatment or even for all nine heritable polyglutamine diseases, since its aggregation-inhibiting property was shown also for a more general polyglutamine target.