The mechanisms leading to neuronal death in neurodegenerative disease are poorly understood. Many of these disorders, including Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and prion diseases, are associated with the accumulation of misfolded disease-specific proteins. The unfolded protein response is a protective cellular mechanism triggered by rising levels of misfolded proteins. One arm of this pathway results in the transient shutdown of protein translation, through phosphorylation of the a-subunit of eukaryotic translation initiation factor, eIF2. Activation of the unfolded protein response and/or increased eIF2a-P levels are seen in patients with Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and prion diseases 1-4 , but how this links to neurodegeneration is unknown. Here we show that accumulation of prion protein during prion replication causes persistent translational repression of global protein synthesis by eIF2a-P, associated with synaptic failure and neuronal loss in prion-diseased mice. Further, we show that promoting translational recovery in hippocampi of prion-infected mice is neuroprotective. Overexpression of GADD34, a specific eIF2a-P phosphatase, as well as reduction of levels of prion protein by lentivirally mediated RNA interference, reduced eIF2a-P levels. As a result, both approaches restored vital translation rates during prion disease, rescuing synaptic deficits and neuronal loss, thereby significantly increasing survival. In contrast, salubrinal, an inhibitor of eIF2a-P dephosphorylation 5 , increased eIF2a-P levels, exacerbating neurotoxicity and significantly reducing survival in priondiseased mice. Given the prevalence of protein misfolding and activation of the unfolded protein response in several neurodegenerative diseases, our results suggest that manipulation of common pathways such as translational control, rather than disease-specific approaches, may lead to new therapies preventing synaptic failure and neuronal loss across the spectrum of these disorders.Neurodegenerative diseases pose an ever-increasing challenge for society and health care systems worldwide, but their molecular pathogenesis is still largely unknown and no curative treatments exist. Alzheimer's (AD), Parkinson's (PD) and prion diseases are separate clinical and pathological conditions, but it is likely they share common mechanisms leading to neuronal death. Mice with prion disease show misfolded prion protein (PrP) accumulation and develop extensive neurodegeneration (with profound neurological deficits), in contrast to mouse models of AD or PD, in which neuronal loss is rare. Uniquely therefore, prion-infected mice allow access to mechanisms linking protein misfolding with neuronal death. Prion replication involves the conversion of cellular PrP, PrP C , to its misfolded, aggregating conformer, PrP Sc , a process leading ultimately to neurodegeneration 6 . We have previously shown rescue of neuronal loss and reversal of early cognitive and morphological changes in prion-infected mice by depleting PrP in neurons, preventing prion replication and ab...
Many biological processes are regulated through the selective dephosphorylation of proteins. Protein serine-threonine phosphatases are assembled from catalytic subunits bound to diverse regulatory subunits that provide substrate specificity and subcellular localization. We describe a small molecule, guanabenz, that bound to a regulatory subunit of protein phosphatase 1, PPP1R15A/GADD34, selectively disrupting the stress-induced dephosphorylation of the α subunit of translation initiation factor 2 (eIF2α). Without affecting the related PPP1R15B-phosphatase complex and constitutive protein synthesis, guanabenz prolonged eIF2α phosphorylation in human stressed cells, adjusting the protein production rates to levels manageable by available chaperones. This favored protein folding and thereby rescued cells from protein misfolding stress. Thus, regulatory subunits of phosphatases are drug targets, a property used here to restore proteostasis in stressed cells.
Hsp90 is an essential eukaryotic molecular chaperone that stabilizes a large set of client proteins, many of which are involved in various cellular signaling pathways. The current list of Hsp90 interactors comprises about 200 proteins and this number is growing steadily. In this paper, we report on the application of three complementary proteomic approaches directed towards identification of novel proteins that interact with Hsp90. These methods are coimmunoprecipitation, pull down with biotinylated geldanamycin, and immobilization of Hsp90β on sepharose. In all, this study led to the identification of 42 proteins, including 18 proteins that had not been previously characterized as Hsp90 interactors. These novel Hsp90 partners not only represent abundant protein species, but several proteins were identified at low levels, among which signaling kinase Cdk3 and putative transcription factor tripartite motif-containing protein 29. Identification of tetratricopeptide-repeat-containing mitochondrial import receptor protein Tom34 suggests the involvement of Hsp90 in the early steps of translocation of mitochondrial preproteins. Taken together, our data expand the knowledge of the Hsp90 interactome and provide a further step in our understanding of the Hsp90 chaperone system.
Selective and reversible phosphorylation is one of the most common post-translational modifications of proteins. Although kinase inhibitors are popular in drug development programmes, selective pharmacological manipulation of phosphatase activity has been challenging to achieve. We review recent advances in the development of selective inhibitors of dephosphorylation events and discuss the potential applications of small-molecule phosphatase inhibitors.
Oxidative stress induced in tumor cells undergoing photodynamic treatment (PDT) leads to extensive modification of many proteins in these cells. Protein oxidation mainly gives rise to formation of carbonyls and oxidized thiols. The immediate targets of PDT-induced protein oxidation in A431 tumor cells have been identified using a proteomic approach involving selective biotinylation, affinity purification and mass spectrometric identification of modified proteins. In all, 314 proteins were shown to undergo PDT-mediated oxidative modifications. While abundant structural proteins and chaperones represented a significant fraction of the carbonylated proteins, labeling of proteins containing oxidized thiols allowed identification of many proteins at low abundance and those involved in signaling and redox homeostasis. On the basis of the identification of these proteins, several likely mechanisms of PDT-induced triggering of apoptosis were put forward. This may not only lead to a further understanding of the complex network of cellular responses to oxidative stress, but it may also help in detailed targeting of photodynamic treatment applied to cancer.
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