Fibrillation of hen egg white lysozyme triggers reduction of copper(II)

Copper is known to exert diverse effects on the self-association of proteins and has been found in amyloid deposits that are involved in neurodegenerative disease processes. The effects of the metal ion on the protein during fibrillation were investigated by fluorescence, circular dichroism spectroscopy and fluorescence microscopy. We report for the first time, the complete reduction of Cu(II) → Cu(I) in vitro during fibrillation of hen egg white lysozyme at pH 7. This was confirmed by the lack of any signal for Cu(II) in electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy and quantification of Cu(I) was achieved by a bathocuproine disulfonate based assay.