In the developing and mature brain, mitochondria act as central hubs for distinct but interwined pathways, necessary for neural development, survival, activity, connectivity and plasticity. In neurons, mitochondria assume diverse functions, such as energy production in the form of ATP, calcium buffering and generation of reactive oxygen species. Mitochondrial dysfunction contributes to a range of neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative diseases, making mitochondria a potential target for pharmacological-based therapies. Pathogenesis associated with these diseases is accompanied by an increase in mitochondrial mass, a quantitative increase to overcome a qualitative deficiency due to mutated mitochondrial proteins that are either nuclear- or mitochondrial-encoded. This compensatory biological response is maladaptive, as it fails to sufficiently augment the bioenergetically functional mitochondrial mass and correct for the ATP deficit. Since regulation of neuronal mitochondrial biogenesis has been scantily investigated, our current understanding on the network of transcriptional regulators, co-activators and signaling regulators mainly derives from other cellular systems. The purpose of this review is to present the current state of our knowledge and understanding of the transcriptional and signaling cascades controlling neuronal mitochondrial biogenesis and the various therapeutic approaches to enhance the functional mitochondrial mass in the context of neurodevelopmental disorders and adult-onset neurodegenerative diseases.

The Tax protein, encoded by the human

Elucidation of the intricate transcriptional pathways leading to neural differentiation and the establishment of neuronal identity is critical to the understanding and design of therapeutic approaches. Among the important players, the basic helix-loop-helix (bHLH) transcription factors have been found to be pivotal regulators of neurogenesis. In this study, we investigate the role of the bHLH differentiation factor Nex1/MATH-2 in conjunction with the nerve growth factor (NGF) signaling pathway using the rat phenochromocytoma PC12 cell line. We report that the expression of Nex1 protein is induced after 5 hr of NGF treatment and reaches maximal levels at 24 hr, when very few PC12 cells have begun extending neurites and ceased cell division. Furthermore, our study demonstrates that Nex1 has the ability to trigger neuronal differentiation of PC12 cells in the absence of neurotrophic factor. We show that Nex1 plays an important role in neurite outgrowth and has the capacity to regenerate neurite outgrowth in the absence of NGF. These results are corroborated by the fact that Nex1 targets a repertoire of distinct types of genes associated with neuronal differentiation, such as GAP-43, betaIII-tubulin, and NeuroD. In addition, our findings show that Nex1 up-regulates the expression of the mitotic inhibitor p21(WAF1), thus linking neuronal differentiation to cell cycle withdrawal. Finally, our studies show that overexpression of a Nex1 mutant has the ability to block the execution of NGF-induced differentiation program, suggesting that Nex1 may be an important effector of the NGF signaling pathway.

Mitochondria play a central role during neurogenesis by providing energy in the form of ATP for cytoskeletal remodelling, outgrowth of neuronal processes, growth cone activity and synaptic activity. However, the fundamental question of how differentiating neurons control mitochondrial biogenesis remains vastly unexplored. Since our previous studies have shown that the neurogenic bHLH (basic helix–loop–helix) transcription factor NeuroD6 is sufficient to induce differentiation of the neuronal progenitor-like PC12 cells and that it triggers expression of mitochondrial-related genes, we investigated whether NeuroD6 could modulate the mitochondrial biomass using our PC12-ND6 cellular paradigm. Using a combination of flow cytometry, confocal microscopy and mitochondrial fractionation, we demonstrate that NeuroD6 stimulates maximal mitochondrial mass at the lamellipodia stage, thus preceding axonal growth. NeuroD6 triggers remodelling of the actin and microtubule networks in conjunction with increased expression of the motor protein KIF5B, thus promoting mitochondrial movement in developing neurites with accumulation in growth cones. Maintenance of the NeuroD6-induced mitochondrial mass requires an intact cytoskeletal network, as its disruption severely reduces mitochondrial mass. The present study provides the first evidence that NeuroD6 plays an integrative role in co-ordinating increase in mitochondrial mass with cytoskeletal remodelling, suggestive of a role of this transcription factor as a co-regulator of neuronal differentiation and energy metabolism.