SummaryMutations in PINK1 cause autosomal recessive Parkinson's disease. PINK1 is a mitochondrial kinase of unknown function. We investigated calcium homeostasis and mitochondrial function in PINK1-deficient mammalian neurons. We demonstrate physiologically that PINK1 regulates calcium efflux from the mitochondria via the mitochondrial Na+/Ca2+ exchanger. PINK1 deficiency causes mitochondrial accumulation of calcium, resulting in mitochondrial calcium overload. We show that calcium overload stimulates reactive oxygen species (ROS) production via NADPH oxidase. ROS production inhibits the glucose transporter, reducing substrate delivery and causing impaired respiration. We demonstrate that impaired respiration may be restored by provision of mitochondrial complex I and II substrates. Taken together, reduced mitochondrial calcium capacity and increased ROS lower the threshold of opening of the mitochondrial permeability transition pore (mPTP) such that physiological calcium stimuli become sufficient to induce mPTP opening in PINK1-deficient cells. Our findings propose a mechanism by which PINK1 dysfunction renders neurons vulnerable to cell death.

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a common age-related neurodegenerative disease and it is critical to develop models which recapitulate the pathogenic process including the effect of the ageing process. Although the pathogenesis of sporadic PD is unknown, the identification of the mendelian genetic factor PINK1 has provided new mechanistic insights. In order to investigate the role of PINK1 in Parkinson's disease, we studied PINK1 loss of function in human and primary mouse neurons. Using RNAi, we created stable PINK1 knockdown in human dopaminergic neurons differentiated from foetal ventral mesencephalon stem cells, as well as in an immortalised human neuroblastoma cell line. We sought to validate our findings in primary neurons derived from a transgenic PINK1 knockout mouse. For the first time we demonstrate an age dependent neurodegenerative phenotype in human and mouse neurons. PINK1 deficiency leads to reduced long-term viability in human neurons, which die via the mitochondrial apoptosis pathway. Human neurons lacking PINK1 demonstrate features of marked oxidative stress with widespread mitochondrial dysfunction and abnormal mitochondrial morphology. We report that PINK1 plays a neuroprotective role in the mitochondria of mammalian neurons, especially against stress such as staurosporine. In addition we provide evidence that cellular compensatory mechanisms such as mitochondrial biogenesis and upregulation of lysosomal degradation pathways occur in PINK1 deficiency. The phenotypic effects of PINK1 loss-of-function described here in mammalian neurons provides mechanistic insight into the age-related degeneration of nigral dopaminergic neurons seen in PD.

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Recent experiments show that the microtubule-associated protein (MAP) 1B is a major phosphorylation substrate for the serine/threonine kinase glycogen synthase kinase-3β (GSK-3β) in differentiating neurons. GSK-3β phosphorylation of MAP1B appears to act as a molecular switch regulating the control that MAP1B exerts on microtubule dynamics in growing axons and growth cones. Maintaining a population of dynamically unstable microtubules in growth cones is important for axon growth and growth cone pathfinding. We have mapped two GSK-3β phosphorylation sites on mouse MAP1B to Ser1260 and Thr1265 using site-directed point mutagenesis of recombinant MAP1B proteins, in vitro kinase assays and phospho-specific antibodies. We raised phospho-specific polyclonal antibodies to these two sites and used them to show that MAP1B is phosphorylated by GSK-3β at Ser1260 and Thr1265 in vivo. We also showed that in the developing nervous system of rat embryos, the expression of GSK-3β phosphorylated MAP1B is spatially restricted to growing axons, in a gradient that is highest distally, despite the expression of MAP1B and GSK-3β throughout the entire neuron. This suggests that there is a mechanism that spatially regulates the GSK-3β phosphorylation of MAP1B in differentiating neurons. Heterologous cell transfection experiments with full-length MAP1B, in which either phosphorylation site was separately mutated to a valine or, in a double mutant, in which both sites were mutated, showed that these GSK-3β phosphorylation sites contribute to the regulation of microtubule dynamics by MAP1B.

Huntington’s disease (HD) is an inherited neurodegenerative disease caused by an expanded CAG repeat in the huntingtin (HTT) gene. CAG repeat length explains around half of the variation in age at onset (AAO) but genetic variation elsewhere in the genome accounts for a significant proportion of the remainder. Genome-wide association studies have identified a bidirectional signal on chromosome 15, likely underlain by FANCD2- and FANCI-associated nuclease 1 (FAN1), a nuclease involved in DNA interstrand cross link repair. Here we show that increased FAN1 expression is significantly associated with delayed AAO and slower progression of HD, suggesting FAN1 is protective in the context of an expanded HTT CAG repeat. FAN1 overexpression in human cells reduces CAG repeat expansion in exogenously expressed mutant HTT exon 1, and in patient-derived stem cells and differentiated medium spiny neurons, FAN1 knockdown increases CAG repeat expansion. The stabilizing effects are FAN1 concentration and CAG repeat length-dependent. We show that FAN1 binds to the expanded HTT CAG repeat DNA and its nuclease activity is not required for protection against CAG repeat expansion. These data shed new mechanistic insights into how the genetic modifiers of HD act to alter disease progression and show that FAN1 affects somatic expansion of the CAG repeat through a nuclease-independent mechanism. This provides new avenues for therapeutic interventions in HD and potentially other triplet repeat disorders.

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Background Neuroinflammation may contribute to the pathogenesis of Huntington’s disease, given evidence of activated microglia and elevated levels of inflammatory molecules in disease gene carriers, even those many years from symptom onset. We have shown previously that monocytes from Huntington’s disease patients are hyper-reactive to stimulation in a manner dependent on their autonomous expression of the disease-causing mutant HTT protein. To date, however, whether human microglia are similarly hyper-responsive in a cell-autonomous manner has not been determined. Methods Microglial-like cells were derived from human pluripotent stem cells (PSCs) expressing mutant HTT containing varying polyglutamine lengths. These included lines that are otherwise isogenic, such that any observed differences can be attributed with certainty to the disease mutation itself. Analyses by quantitative PCR and immunofluorescence microscopy respectively of key genes and protein markers were undertaken to determine whether Huntington’s disease PSCs differentiated normally to a microglial fate. The resultant cultures and their supernatants were then assessed by various biochemical assays and multiplex ELISAs for viability and responses to stimulation, including the release of pro-inflammatory cytokines and reactive oxygen species. Conditioned media were applied to PSC-derived striatal neurons, and vice versa, to determine the effects that the secretomes of each cell type might have on the other. Results Human PSCs generated microglia successfully irrespective of the expression of mutant HTT. These cells, however, were hyper-reactive to stimulation in the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines such as IL-6 and TNFα. They also released elevated levels of reactive oxygen species that have neurotoxic potential. Accompanying such phenotypes, human Huntington’s disease PSC-derived microglia showed increased levels of apoptosis and were more susceptible to exogenous stress. Such stress appeared to be induced by supernatants from human PSC-derived striatal neurons expressing mutant HTT with a long polyglutamine tract. Conclusions These studies show, for the first time, that human Huntington’s disease PSC-derived microglia are hyper-reactive due to their autonomous expression of mutant HTT. This provides a cellular basis for the contribution that neuroinflammation might make to Huntington’s disease pathogenesis.

Mitochondrial Na(+)/Ca(2+) exchange (NCXmito) is critical for neuronal Ca(2+) homeostasis and prevention of cell death from excessive mitochondrial Ca(2+) (m[Ca(2+)]) accumulation. The mitochondrial kinase PINK1 appears to regulate the mCa(2+) efflux from dopaminergic (DAergic) neurons, possibly by directly regulating NCXmito. However, the precise molecular identity of NCXmito is unknown and has been the subject of great controversy. Here we propose that the previously characterised plasmalemmal NCX isoforms (NCX2, NCX3) contribute to mitochondrial Na(+)/Ca(2+) exchange in human DAergic neurons and may act downstream of PINK1 in the prevention of neurodegeneration by m[Ca(2+)] accumulation. Firstly, we definitively show the existence of a mitochondrial pool of endogenous plasmalemmal NCX isoforms in human DAergic neurons and cell lines using immunolocalisation and fluorescence-assisted organelle sorting (FAOS). Secondly, we demonstrate reduced mitochondrial Ca(2+) efflux occurs following inhibition of NCX2 or NCX3 (but not NCX1) using siRNA or antibody blocking. This study has potentially revealed a new molecular target in Parkinson's disease pathology which ultimately may open up new avenues for future therapeutic intervention.