Cellular homeostasis is controlled by an evolutionary conserved cellular digestive process called autophagy. This mechanism is tightly regulated by the two sensor elements called mTORC1 and AMPK. mTORC1 is one of the master regulators of proteostasis, while AMPK maintains cellular energy homeostasis. AMPK is able to promote autophagy by phosphorylating ULK1, the key inducer of autophagosome formation, while mTORC1 downregulates the self-eating process via ULK1 under nutrient rich conditions. We claim that the feedback loops of the AMPK–mTORC1–ULK1 regulatory triangle guarantee the appropriate response mechanism when nutrient and/or energy supply changes. In our opinion, there is an essential double negative feedback loop between mTORC1 and AMPK. Namely, not only does AMPK downregulate mTORC1, but mTORC1 also inhibits AMPK and this inhibition is required to keep AMPK inactive at physiological conditions. The aim of the present study was to explore the dynamical characteristic of AMPK regulation upon various cellular stress events. We approached our scientific analysis from a systems biology perspective by incorporating both theoretical and molecular biological techniques. In this study, we confirmed that AMPK is essential to promote autophagy, but is not sufficient to maintain it. AMPK activation is followed by ULK1 induction, where protein has a key role in keeping autophagy active. ULK1-controlled autophagy is always preceded by AMPK activation. With both ULK1 depletion and mTORC1 hyper-activation (i.e., TSC1/2 downregulation), we demonstrate that a double negative feedback loop between AMPK and mTORC1 is crucial for the proper dynamic features of the control network. Our computer simulations have further proved the dynamical characteristic of AMPK–mTORC1–ULK1 controlled cellular nutrient sensing.

Autophagy is an intracellular digestive process, which has a crucial role in maintaining cellular homeostasis by self-eating the unnecessary and/or damaged components of the cell at various stress events. ULK1, one of the key elements of autophagy activator complex, together with the two sensors of nutrient and energy conditions, called mTORC1 and AMPK kinases, guarantee the precise function of cell response mechanism. We claim that the feedback loops of AMPK–mTORC1–ULK1 regulatory triangle determine an accurate dynamical characteristic of autophagic process upon cellular stress. By using both molecular and theoretical biological techniques, here we reveal that a delayed negative feedback loop between active AMPK and ULK1 is essential to manage a proper cellular answer after prolonged starvation or rapamycin addition. AMPK kinase quickly gets induced followed by AMPK-P-dependent ULK1 activation, whereas active ULK1 has a rapid negative effect on AMPK-P resulting in a delayed inhibition of ULK1. The AMPK-P → ULK1 ˧ AMPK-P negative feedback loop results in a periodic repeat of their activation and inactivation and an oscillatory activation of autophagy, as well. We demonstrate that the periodic induction of self-cannibalism is necessary for the proper dynamical behaviour of the control network when mTORC1 is inhibited with respect to various stress events. By computational simulations we also suggest various scenario to introduce “delay” on AMPK-P-dependent ULK1 activation (i.e. extra regulatory element in the wiring diagram or multi-phosphorylation of ULK1).

One of the main inducers of autophagy-dependent self-cannibalism, called ULK1, is tightly regulated by the two sensor molecules of nutrient conditions and energy status, known as mTOR and AMPK kinases, respectively. Recently, we developed a freely available mathematical model to explore the oscillatory characteristic of the AMPK-mTOR-ULK1 regulatory triangle. Here, we introduce a systems biology analysis to explain in detail the dynamical features of the essential negative and double-negative feedback loops and also the periodic repeat of autophagy induction upon cellular stress. We propose an additional regulatory molecule in the autophagy control network that delays some of AMPK’s effect on the system, making the model output more consistent with experimental results. Furthermore, a network analysis on AutophagyNet was carried out to identify which proteins could be the proposed regulatory components in the system. These regulatory proteins should satisfy the following rules: (1) they are induced by AMPK; (2) they promote ULK1; (3) they down-regulate mTOR upon cellular stress. We have found 16 such regulatory components that have been experimentally proven to satisfy at least two of the given rules. Identifying such critical regulators of autophagy induction could support anti-cancer- and ageing-related therapeutic efforts.

Autophagy-dependent cellular survival is tightly regulated by both kinases and phosphatases. While mTORC1 inhibits autophagy by phosphorylating ULK1, PP2A is able to remove this phosphate group from ULK1 and promotes the key inducer of autophagosome formation. However, ULK1 inhibits mTORC1, mTORC1 is able to down-regulate PP2A. In addition, the active ULK1 promotes PP2A via phosphorylation. We claim that these double-negative (mTORC1 –| PP2A –| mTORC1, mTORC1 –| ULK1 –| mTORC1) and positive (ULK1 -> PP2A -> ULK1) feedback loops are all necessary for the robust, irreversible decision making process between the autophagy and non-autophagy states. We approach our scientific analysis from a systems biological perspective by applying both theoretical and molecular biological techniques. For molecular biological experiments, HEK293T cell line is used, meanwhile the dynamical features of the regulatory network are described by mathematical modelling. In our study, we explore the dynamical characteristic of mTORC1-ULK1-PP2A regulatory triangle in detail supposing that the positive feedback loops are essential to manage a robust cellular answer upon various cellular stress events (such as mTORC1 inhibition, starvation, PP2A inhibition or ULK1 silencing). We confirm that active ULK1 can up-regulate PP2A when mTORC1 is inactivated. By using theoretical analysis, we explain the importance of cellular PP2A level in stress response mechanism. We proved both experimentally and theoretically that PP2A down-regulation (via addition of okadaic acid) might generate a periodic repeat of autophagy induction. Understanding how the regulation of the cell survival occurs with the precise molecular balance of ULK1-mTORC1-PP2A in autophagy, is highly relevant in several cellular stress-related diseases (such as neurodegenerative diseases or diabetes) and might help to promote advanced therapies in the near future, too.