skip to content

Department of Pharmacology

 

 

2023

Hutin S.Kumita J.R., Strotmann V.I., Dolata A., Ling W.L., Louafi N., Popov A., Milheit P-E., Blackledge M., Nanao M.H., Wigge P.A., Stahl Y., Costa L. Tully M.D. & C. Zubieta, “Phase separation and molecular ordering of the prion-like domain of the Arabidopsis thermosensory protein EARLY FLOWERING 3” Proc. Natl Acad Sci USA 120(28): e2304714120 (2023).

Mañucat-Tan, N.B, Chowdhury A., Cataldi R., Zeineddine Abdullah R., Kumita J.R. & A.R. Wyatt, “Hypochlorite-induced oxidation promotes aggregation and reduces toxicity of amyloid beta 1-42” Redox Biol 63: 102736 (2023).

Bell R., Vendruscolo M. & J.R. Kumita*, “Probing the effects of N-terminal acetylation on α-synuclein structure, aggregation and cytotoxicity” Meth Enzymol 686: 45-65 (2023).

Bell R., Castellana-Cruz M., Nene A., Thrush R.J., Xu C.K. Kumita J.R. & M. Vendruscolo, “Effects of N-terminal acetylation on the aggregation of disease-related α-synuclein variants” J Mol Biol 435: 167825 (2023)  doi: 10.1016/j.jmb.2022.167825.

2022

Bell R., Thrush R.J., Castellana-Cruz M., Oeller M., Staats R., Nene A., Flagmeier P., Xu C.K., Satapathy S., Galvagnion C., Wilson M.R., Dobson C.M. Kumita J.R. & M. Vendruscolo, “The N-terminal acetylation of α-synuclein slows down its aggregation process and alters the morphology of the resulting aggregates” Biochemistry 61(17):1743-1756 (2022).

Xu C.K., Castellana-Cruz M., Chen S.W., Du Z., Meisl G., Levin A., Mannini B., Itzhaki L.S., Knowles T.P.J., Dobson C.M., Cremades N. & J.R. Kumita, “The pathological G51D mutation in alpha-synuclein oligomers confers distinct structural attributes and cellular toxicity” Molecules 27(4): 1293 (2022).

2021

Cao, Y. Adamcik, J., Diener, M., Kumita, J.R. and R. Mezzenga, “Different folding states from the same protein sequence determine reversible vs irreversible amyloid fate” J Am Chem Soc 143(30): 11473-11481 (2021).

Perni, M., Mannini, B., Xu, C.X., Kumita, J.R., Chiti, F., Vendruscolo, M. and C.M. Dobson, “Investigation of the origins of the toxicity of amyloidogenic oligomers in C. elegansSci Rep 11(1): 14391 (2021).

Limbocker, R., Staats, R., Chia, S., Ruggeri, F.S., Mannini, B., Xu, C.K., Perni, M., Cascella, R., Bigi, A., Sasser, L.R., Block, N.R., Wright, A.K., Kreiser, R.P., Custy, E.T., Meisl, G., Errico, S., Habchi, J., Flagmeier, P., Kartanas, T., Hollows, J.E., Nguyen, L.T., LeForte, K., Barbut, D., Kumita, J.R., Cecchi, C., Zasloff, M., Knowles, T.P.J., Dobson, C.M., Chiti, F. and M. Vendruscolo, “Squalamine and its derivatives modulate the aggregation of amyloid-β and α-synuclein and suppress the toxicity of their oligomers” Front Neurosci 15: 680026 (2021).

Perni, M., van der Goot, A., Limbocker, R., van Ham, T.J., Aprile, F.A., Xu, C.K., Flagmeier, P., Thijssen, K., Sormanni, P., Fusco, G., Chen, S.W., Challa, P.K., Kirkegaard, J.B., Laine, R.F., Ma, K.Y., Mueller, M.B.D., Sinnige, T., Kumita, J.R., Cohen, S.I.A., Seinstra, R., Kaminski Schierle, G.S., Kaminski, C.F., Barbut, D., De Simone, A., Knowles, T.P.J., Zasloff, M., Nollen, E.A.A., Vendruscolo, M. & C.M. Dobson, “Comparative studies in the A30P and A53T α-synuclein C. elegans strains to investigate the molecular origins of Parkinson’s disease” Frontiers Cell Dev Biol 9: 552549 (2021).

Vettore, N., Moray, J., Brans, A. Hermans, R., Charlier, P., Kumita, J.R., Kerff, F., Dobson, C.M. & M. Dumoulin, “Characterisation of the structural, dynamic and aggregation properties of the W64R amyloidogenic variant of human lysozyme” Biophys Chem 271: 106563 (2021).

Lessa Cataldi, R., Chia, S., Pisani, K., Ruggeri, F.S., Xu, C.K., Sneideris, T., Perni, M., Sarwat, S., Joshi P., Kumita, J.R., Linse, S., Habchi, J., Knowles, T.P.J., Mannini, B., Dobson, C.M. & M. Vendruscolo, “A dopamine metabolite stabilizes neurotoxic amyloid-β oligomers” Comm Bio 4(1): 19 (2021).

2020

Diamante, A., Chaturbedy, P., Rowling, P.J.E., Kumita, J.R., Eapen, R., McLaughlin, S., de la Roche, M., Perez-Riba, A. & L.S. Itzhaki, “Engineering mono- and multi-valent inhibitors on a modular scaffold” Chem Sci 12(3): 880-895 (2020).

Frankel, D., Davies, M., Bhushan, B., Kulaberoglu, Y., Urriola-Munoz, P., Bertrand, J., Smith, A.A., Preet, S., Vendruscolo, M., Rankin, K., Kumita, J.R., Cenac, N. & E.S.J. Smith, “Lipid membranes from naked mole-rat brain lipids are cholesterol-rich, highly phase-separated, and sensitive to amyloid-induced damage”, Aging 12(21): 22266-22290 (2020).

Arter, W.E., Xu, C.K., Castellana-Cruz, M., Herling, T.W., Krainer, G., Saar, K.L., Kumita, J.R., Dobson, C.M. and T.P.J. Knowles, “Rapid fractionation and characterisation of alpha-synuclein oligomers in solution” Nano Lett 20(11): 8163-8169 (2020).

Chrabąszczewska, M., Sieradzan, A.K., Rodziewicz-Motowidło, S., Grubb, A., Dobson, C.M., Kumita, J.R.* & M. Kozak*, “Structural characterization of covalently stabilized human cystatin C oligomers”, Int J Mol Sci 21(16): 5860 (2020).

Limbocker, R., Mannini, B., Ruggeri, F., Cascella R., Xu, C., Perni, M., Chia, S.K.R., Chen, S.W., Habchi, J., Bigi, A., Kartanas, T., Kumita, J.R., Cremades, N., Zasloff, M., Cecchi, C., Knowles, T.P.J., Chiti, F., Vendruscolo, M. & C.M. Dobson, “Displacement of protein misfolded oligomers from cell membranes abrogates their cytotoxicity through a generic mechanism“, Comm Bio 21(12): 4542 (2020).

Du, Z., Chakrabarti, S., Kulaberoglu, Y., Smith, E.S.J., Dobson, C.M., Itzhaki, L.S. & J.R. Kumita, “Probing the unfolded protein response in long-lived naked mole-rats”, Biochem Biophys Res Comm 529(4): 1151-1157 (2020).

Jung, J.-H., Barbosa, A.D., Hutin, S., Kumita, J.R., Gao, M., Derwort, D., Silva, C.S., Lai, X., Pierre, E., Geng, F., Kim, S.-B., Baek, S., Zubieta, C., Jaeger, K.E. & P.A. Wigge, “A prion-like domain in ELF3 functions as a thermosensor in Arabidopsis”, Nature 585(7824): 256-260 (2020).

Limbocker, R., Mannini, B., Cataldi, R., Chhangur, S., Wright, A.K., Kreiser, R.P., Albright, J.A., Chia, S., Habchi, J., Sormanni, P., Kumita, J.R., Ruggeri, F.S., Dobson, C.M., Chiti, F., Aprile, F.A. & M. Vendruscolo, “Rationally designed antibodies as research tools to study the structure-toxicity relationship of amyloid-β oligomers”, Int. J. Mol. Sci. 21(12): 4542 (2020).

Ruggeri, F.S., Flagmeier, P., Kumita, J.R., Meisl, G., Chirgadze, D.Y., Bongiovanni, M.N., Knowles, T.P.J. and C.M. Dobson, “The influence of pathogenic mutations in α-synuclein on biophysical and structural characteristics of amyloid fibrils” ACS Nano 14(5): 5213-5222 (2020).

Bergkvist, L., Richards, D.R., Bernardo-Gancedo, A., Kumita, J.R., Nilsson, P.R. and A.-C. Brorsson, “Serum amyloid P component promotes formation of distinct aggregated lysozyme morphologies and reduces toxicity in Drosophila flies expressing F57I lysozyme” PLoS One 15(1): e0227227 (2020).

Bergkvist, L., Du, Z., Elovsson, G., Appelqvist, H., Itzhaki, L.S., Kumita, J.R., Kagedal, K. and A-C. Brorsson, “Mapping pathogenic processes contributing to neurodegeneration in Drosophila models of Alzheimer’s disease” FEBS Open Bio 10(3): 338-350 (2020).

2019

Ng, J.S.W., Hanspal, M.A., Matharu, N.S., Barros, T.P., Esbjörner, E.K., Wilson, M.R., Yerbury, J.J., Dobson, C.M. and J.R. Kumita, “Using tetracysteine-tagged TDP-43 with a biarsenical dye to monitor real-time trafficking in a cell model of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis” Biochemistry 58(39): 4086-4095 (2019).

Froula, J.M., Castellana-Cruz, M., Anabtawi, N.M., Camino, J.D., Chen, S.W., Thraser, D.R., Frieire, J., Yazdi, A.A., Fleming, S., Dobson, C.M., Kumita, J.R., Cremades, N. and L.A. Volpicelli-Daley, “Defining α-synuclein conformers responsible for Parkinson’s disease phenotypes in mice” J Bio Chem 294(27):10392-10406 (2019). Correction: J Bio Chem 295(4): 1142 (2020).

Scheidt, T., Łapińska, U., Kumita, J.R., Whiten, D.R., Klenerman, D., Wilson, M.R., Cohen, S.I.A., Linse, S., Vendruscolo, M., Dobson, C.M., Knowles, T.P.J. and P. Arosio, “Secondary nucleation and elongation occur at different sites on Alzheimer’s amyloid-beta aggregates” Sci Adv 5(4): eaau3112 (2019).

Liu, X., Toprakcioglu, Z., Dear, A., Levin, A., Ruggeri, F.S., Taylor C.G., Hu, M., Kumita, J.R., Andreasen, M., Dobson, C.M., Holland, C., Shimanovich, U. and T.P.J. Knowles, “Fabrication and characterisation of reconstituted silk microgels for molecular encapsulation” Macromol Rapid Comm 40(8): e1800898 (2019).

Cater J.H., Kumita J.R., Zeineddine Abdallah R., Zhao G., Bernardo-Gancedo A., Henry A., Winata W., Chi M., Greyner B.S.F., Townsend M.L., Ranson M., Buhimschi C.S., Charnock-Jones D.S., Dobson C.M., Wilson M.R., Buhimschi I.A. and A.R. Wyatt, “Human pregnancy zone protein stabilises misfolded proteins including preeclampsia- and Alzheimer’s-associated amyloid beta peptide” Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 116(13): 6101-6110 (2019).

Ahn M., Lee B.I., Chia S., Habchi J., Kumita J.R., Vendruscolo M., Dobson C.M. and C. B. Park, “Chemical and mechanistic analysis of photodynamic inhibition of Alzheimer’s β-amyloid aggregation” Chem Comm 55(8): 1152-1155 (2019).

Limbocker R., Chia S., Ruggeri F.S., Perni M., Cascella R., Heller G.T., Meisl G., Mannini B., Habchi J., Michaels T.C.T., Challa P.K., Ahn M., Casford S.T., Fernando N., Xu C.K., Kloss N.D., Cohen S.I.A., Kumita J.R., Cecchi C., Zasloff M., Linse S., Knowles T.P.J., Chiti F., Vendruscolo M. and C.M. Dobson “Trodusquemine enhances Aβ42 aggregation but suppresses its toxicity by displacing oligomers from cell membranes” Nat Comm 10(1): 225 (2019).

2018

Perni M., Flagmeier P., Limbocker R., Casella R., Aprile F.A., Galvagnion C., Heller G.T., Meisl G., Chen S.W., Kumita J.R., Challa P.K., Kirkegaard J.B., Cohen S.I.A., Mannini B., Barbut D., Nollen E.A.A., Cecchi C., Cremades N., Knowles T.P.J., Chiti F., Zasloff M., Vendruscolo M. and C.M. Dobson, “Multistep inhibition of α-synuclein aggregation and toxicity in vitro and in vivo by trodusquemine” ACS Chem Biol 13(8): 2308-2319 (2018).

Whiten D.R., Cox D., Horrocks M.H., Taylor C.G., De S., Flagmeier P., Tosatto L., Kumita J.R., Ecroyd H., Dobson C.M., Klenerman D. and M.R. Wilson, “Single-molecule characterization of the interactions between extracellular chaperones and toxic α-synuclein oligomers” Cell Rep 23(12): 3492-3500 (2018).

Habchi J., Chia S., Galvagnion C., Michaels T.C.T., Bellaiche M.M.J., Ruggeri F.S., Sanguanini M., Idini I., Kumita J.R., Sparr E., Linse S., Dobson C.M., Knowles T.P.J. and M. Vendruscolo, “Cholesterol catalyses Aβ42 aggregation through a heterogeneous nucleation pathway in the presence of lipid membranes” Nat Chem 10(6): 673-683 (2018).

2017

Ahn M., Waudby C.A., Bernardo-Gancedo A., De Genst E., Dhulesia A., Salvatella X., Christodoulou J., Dobson C.M. and J.R. Kumita, “Application of lysine-specific labelling to detect transient interactions present during human lysozyme amyloid fibril formation” Sci Rep 7(1): 15018 (2017).

Gregory J.M., Whiten D.R., Brown R.A., de Barros T.P., Kumita J.R., Yerbury J.J., Satapathy S., McDade K., Smith C., Luheshi, L.M., Dobson C.M. and M.R. Wilson, “Clusterin protects neurons against intracellular proteotoxicity” Acta Neuropath Comm 5(1): 81 (2017).

Hanspal M.A., Dobson C.M., Yerbury J.J. and J.R. Kumita, “The relevance of contact-independent cell-to-cell transfer of TDP-43 and SOD1 in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis” BBA – Mol Basis Dis 1863: 2762-2771 (2017).

Stroobants K., Kumita J.R., Harris N.J., Chirgadze D.Y., Dobson C.M., Booth P.J. and M. Vendruscolo, “Amyloid fibrils from an α-helical transmembrane protein” Biochemistry 56(25): 3225-3233 (2017).

Zeineddine R., Whiten D.R., Farrawell N.E., McAlary L., Hanspal M.A., Kumita J.R., Wilson M.R. and J.J. Yerbury, “Flow cytometric measurement of the cellular propagation of TDP-43 aggregation” Prion 11(3): 195-204 (2017).

Aprile F.A., Arosio P., Fusco G., Chen S.W., Kumita J.R., Dhulesia A., Tortora P., Knowles T.P., Vendruscolo M., Dobson C.M. and N. Cremades, “Inhibition of α-synuclein fibril elongation by Hsp70 is governed by a kinetic binding competition between α-synuclein species” Biochemistry 56(9): 1177-1180 (2017).

Habchi J., Chia S., Limbocker R., Mannini B., Ahn M., Perni M., Hansson O., Arosio P., Kumita J.R., Challa P.K., Cohen S.I., Linse S., Dobson C.M., Knowles T.P and M. Vendruscolo, “Systematic development of small molecules to inhibit specific microscopic steps of Aβ42 aggregation in Alzheimer’s disease” Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 114(2): E200-E208 (2017).

2016

Ahn, M., Hagan C.L., Bernardo-Gancedo A., De Genst E., Newby F.N., Christodoulou J., Dumoulin M., Robinson C.V., Dobson C.M and J.R. Kumita, “The significance of the location of mutations on the native-state dynamics of human lysozyme” Biophys J 111(11): 2358-2367 (2016).

2015

Aran Terol, P., Kumita J.R., Hook S.C., Dobson C.M. and E.K. Esbjörner, “Solvent exposure of Tyr10 as a probe of structural differences between monomeric and aggregated forms of the amyloid-β peptide” Biochem Biophys Res Commun 468(4): 696-701 (2015).

Wyatt A.R., Kumita J.R., Farrawell N.E., Dobson C.M. and M.R. Wilson, “Alpha-2-macroglobulin is acutely sensitive to freezing and lyophilization: Implications for structural and functional studies” PLoS One 10(6): e0130036 (2015).

Pietralik Z., Kumita J.R., Dobson C.M. and M. Kozak, “The influence of novel gemini surfactants containing cycloalkyl side-chains on the structural phases of DNA in solution” Colloids Surf B Biointerfaces 131: 83-92 (2015).

Hook S.H., Roberts K., Kumita J.R. and J.J. Yerbury, “The interplay of protein aggregates, microglia & neuroinflammation in neurodegenerative disease” in Microglia: Physiology, Regulation & Health Implications (ed. E.R. Giffard). Nova Science Publishers (2015).

Kukic P., Leung H.T., Bemporad F., Aprile F.A., Kumita J.R., De Simone A., Camilloni C. and M. Vendruscolo, “Structure and dynamics of the integrin LFA-1 I-domain in the inactive state underlie its inside-out/outside-in signaling and allosteric mechanisms” Structure 23(4): 745-753 (2015).

2014

Leung H.T., Kukic P., Camilloni C., Bemporad R., De Simone A., Aprile F.A., Kumita J.R. and M. Vendruscolo, “NMR characterization of the conformational fluctuations of the human lymphocyte function-associated antigen-1 I-domain” Protein Sci 23(11): 1596-1606 (2014).

Wyatt A.R., Kumita J.R., Mifsud R.W., Gooden C.A., Wilson M.R. and C.M. Dobson, “Hypochlorite-induced structural modifications enhance the chaperone activity of human α-2-macroglobulin” Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 111(20): E2081-E2090 (2014).

Grad L.I., Yerbury J.J., Turner B.J., Guest W.C., Pokrishevsky E., O’Neill M.A., Yanai A., Silverman J.M., Zeineddine R., Corcoran L., Kumita J.R., Luheshi L.M., Yousefi M., Coleman B.M., Hill A.F., Plotkin S.S., Mackenzie I.R. and N.R. Cashman, “Intercellular propagated misfolding of wild-type Cu/Zn superoxide dismutase occurs via exosome-dependent and independent mechanisms” Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 111(9): 3620-3625 (2014).

2013

De Genst E., Chan P.H., Pardon E., Hsu S.T., Kumita J.R., Christodoulou J., Menzer L., Chirgadze D.Y., Robinson C.V., Muyldermans S., Matagne A., Wyns L., Dobson C.M. and M. Dumoulin, “A nanobody binding to non-amyloidogenic regions of the protein human lysozyme enhances partial unfolding but inhibits amyloid fibril formation” J Phys Chem B 117(42): 13245-13248 (2013).

Chan F.T., Kaminski Schierle G.S., Kumita J.R., Bertoncini C.W., Dobson C.M. and C.F. Kaminski, “Protein amyloids develop an intrinsic fluorescence signature during aggregation” Analyst 138(7): 2156-2162 (2013).

Wyatt A.R., Constantinescu P., Ecroyd H., Dobson C.M., Wilson M.R., Kumita J.R.* and J.J. Yerbury*, “Protease-activated alpha-2-macroglobulin can inhibit amyloid formation via two distinct mechanisms” FEBS Lett 587(5): 398-402 (2013). (*joint corresponding authors)

2012

Ahn M., De Genst E., Kaminski Schierle G.S, Erdelyi M., Kaminski C.F., Dobson C.M. and J.R. Kumita, “Analysis of the native structure, stability and aggregation of biotinylated human lysozyme” PLoS One 7(11): e50192 (2012).

Kumita J.R., Helmfors L., Williams J., Luheshi L.M., Menzer L., Dumoulin M., Lomas D.A., Crowther D.C., Dobson C.M. and A.C. Brorsson, “Disease-related amyloidogenic variants of human lysozyme trigger the unfolded protein response and disturb eye development in Drosophila melanogaster” FASEB J 26(1):192-202 (2012).

For a full publication list please see https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=kOfIZ3QAAAAJ&hl=en