SummaryExcessive mitochondrial fission is associated with the pathology of a number of neurodegenerative diseases. Therefore, inhibitors of aberrant mitochondrial fission could provide important research tools in addition to potential leads for drug development. Using a rational approach, we designed a novel and selective peptide inhibitor, P110, of excessive mitochondrial fission. P110 inhibits Drp1 enzyme activity and blocks Drp1/Fis1 interaction in vitro and in cultured neurons, whereas it has no effect on the interaction between Drp1 and other mitochondrial adaptors, as demonstrated by co-immunoprecipitation. Furthermore, using a model of Parkinson's disease (PD) in culture, we demonstrated that P110 is neuroprotective by inhibiting mitochondrial fragmentation and reactive oxygen species (ROS) production and subsequently improving mitochondrial membrane potential and mitochondrial integrity. P110 increased neuronal cell viability by reducing apoptosis and autophagic cell death, and reduced neurite loss of primary dopaminergic neurons in this PD cell culture model. We also found that P110 treatment appears to have minimal effects on mitochondrial fission and cell viability under basal conditions. Finally, P110 required the presence of Drp1 to inhibit mitochondrial fission under oxidative stress conditions. Taken together, our findings suggest that P110, as a selective peptide inhibitor of Drp1, might be useful for the treatment of diseases in which excessive mitochondrial fission and mitochondrial dysfunction occur.

LRRK2 G2019S mutation is the most common genetic cause of Parkinson's disease (PD). Cellular pathology caused by this mutant is associated with mitochondrial dysfunction and augmented autophagy. However, the underlying mechanism is not known. In this study, we determined whether blocking excessive mitochondrial fission could reduce cellular damage and neurodegeneration induced by the G2019S mutation. In both LRRK2 G2019S-expressing cells and PD patient fibroblasts carrying this specific mutant, treatment with P110, a selective peptide inhibitor of fission dynamin-related protein 1 (Drp1) recently developed in our lab, reduced mitochondrial fragmentation and damage, and corrected excessive autophagy. LRRK2 G2019S directly bound to and phosphorylated Drp1 at Threonine595, whereas P110 treatment abolished this phosphorylation. A site-directed mutant, Drp1(T595A), corrected mitochondrial fragmentation, improved mitochondrial mass and suppressed excessive autophagy in both cells expressing LRRK2 G2019S and PD patient fibroblasts carrying the mutant. Further, in dopaminergic neurons derived from LRRK2 G2019S PD patient-induced pluripotent stem cells, we demonstrated that either P110 treatment or expression of Drp1(T595A) reduced mitochondrial impairment, lysosomal hyperactivity and neurite shortening. Together, we propose that inhibition of Drp1-mediated excessive mitochondrial fission might be a strategy for treatment of PD relevant to LRRK2 G2019S mutation.

The functions of the Betanodavirus non-structural protein B1 is still unknown. We examined B1 expression patterns and investigated novel cell death regulatory functions for this viral protein following RGNNV infection in fish cells. The B1 gene (336 nt) was cloned from the redspotted grouper nervous necrosis virus (RGNNV) genome. B1 mRNA was rapidly expressed in the fish cells from viral RNA3 at 12 h post-infection (p.i.). At the protein level, expression was low at 12 h p.i., and then increased rapidly between 24 h and 72 h p.i. In RGNNV-infected, B1-containing fish cells, over expression of RGNNV B1 reduced Annexin-V positive cells by 50% and 65% at 48 h and 72 h p.i., respectively, and decreased loss of mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP) by 20% and 70% at 48 h and 72 h p.i., respectively. Finally, B1 knockdown during RGNNV infection using anti-sense RNA increased necrotic cell death and reduced cell viability during the early replication cycle (24 h p.i.). Our results suggest that B1 is an early expression protein that has an anti-necrotic cell death function which reduces the MMP loss and enhances viral host cell viability. This finding provides new insights into RNA viral pathogenesis and disease control.

The Betanodavirus non-structural protein B2 plays a role in silencing RNA interference (RNAi), which mediated regulation of animal and plant innate immune responses, but little is known regarding the role of B2 in cell death. The present study examined the effects of B2 on mitochondria-mediated necrotic cell death in grouper liver (GL-av) cells. B2 was expressed at 12 h post-infection (pi), with increased expression between 24 and 72 h pi by Western blot. B2 was transiently expressed to investigate possible novel protein functions. Transient expression of B2 in GL-av cells resulted in apoptotic cell features and positive TUNEL assays (28%) at 24 h post-transfection (pt). During mechanistic studies of cell death, B2 upregulated expression of the proapoptotic gene Bax (2.8 fold at 48 h pt) and induced loss of mitochondria membrane potential (MMP) but not mitochondrial cytochrome c release. Furthermore, over expression of Bcl-2 family member zfBcl-xL effectively prevented B2-induced, mitochondria-mediated necrotic cell death. Finally, using RNA interference to reduce B2 expression, both B2 and Bax expression were downregulated and RGNNV-infected cells were rescued from secondary necrosis. Taken together, our results suggest that B2 upregulates Bax and triggers mitochondria-mediated necrotic cell death independent of cytochrome c release.

Nervous necrosis virus (NNV)-induced, host cell apoptosis mediates secondary necrosis by an ill-understood process. In this study, redspotted grouper nervous necrosis virus (RGNNV) is shown to induce mitochondria-mediated necrotic cell death in GL-av cells (fish cells) via cytochrome c release, and anti-apoptotic proteins are shown to protect these cells from death. Western blots revealed that cytochrome c release coincided with disruption of mitochondrial ultrastructure and preceded necrosis, but did not correlate with caspases activation. To identify the mediator(s) of this necrotic process, a protein synthesis inhibitor (cycloheximide; CHX; 0.33 microg/ml) was used to block cytochrome c release as well as PS exposure and mitochondrial membrane permeability transition pore (MMP) loss. CHX (0.33 microg/ml) completely blocked viral protein B2 expression, and partly blocked protein A, protein alpha, and a pro-apoptotic death protein (Bad) expression. Overexpression of B2 gene increased necrotic-like cell death up to 30% at 48 h post-transfection, suggesting that newly synthesized protein (B2) may be involved in this necrotic process. Finally, necrotic death was prevented by overexpression of Bcl-2 family proteins, zfBcl-x(L) and xfMcl-1a. Thus, new protein synthesis and release of cytochrome c are required for RGNNV-induced necrotic cell death, which can be blocked by anti-apoptotic Bcl-2 members.

The G2019S leucine-rich repeat kinase 2 (LRRK2) mutation is the most common cause of genetic Parkinson's disease (PD). However, the molecular mechanism underlying LRRK2 G2019S-induced cellular pathology is poorly understood. Here, we demonstrated that LRRK2 G2019S bound to and phosphorylated Bcl-2, a mitochondrial anti-apoptotic protein, at Threonine 56. Either stable expression of Bcl-2 or transient expression of a Bcl-2 phosphor mutant (Bcl-2T56A) abolished LRRK2 G2019S-induced mitochondrial depolarization and autophagy. Together, our findings reveal a previously unidentified target of LRRK2 G2019S, showing that Bcl-2 serves as a point of crosstalk between LRRK2 G2019S-mediated mitochondrial disorder and dysregulation of autophagy.

Whether viral pathogens that induce ER stress responses benefit the host or the virus remains controversial. In this study we show that betanodavirus induced ER stress responses up-regulate GRP78, which regulates the viral replication and host cellular mitochondrial-mediated cell death. Betanodavirus (redspotted grouper nervous necrosis virus, RGNNV) infection resulted in the following increased ER stress responses in fish GF-1 grouper fin cells: (1) IRE-1 and ATF-6 sensors at 48 h post-infection (p.i.) that up-regulated chaperone protein GRP78; (2) activation of caspase-12; and (3) PERK phosphorylation and down-regulation of Bcl-2. Analyses of GRP78 functions during viral replication using either loss-of-function or gain-of-function approaches showed that GRP78 over-expression also enhanced viral replication and induced cell death. Then, we found that zfGRP78 localization gradually increased in mitochondria after RGNNV infection by EGFP tagging approach. Furthermore, zfGRP78 can interact with viral RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp) by using immunofluorescent and immunoprecipitation assays. Finally, we found that blocking GRP78-mediated ER signals can reduce the viral death factors protein α and protein B2 expression and decrease the Bcl-2 down-regulation mediated mitochondria-dependent cell death, which also enhances host cellular viability. Taken together, our results suggest that RGNNV infection and expression can trigger ER stress responses, which up-regulate the chaperone GRP78 at early replication stage. Then, GRP78 can interact with RdRp that may enhance the viral replication for increasing viral death factors' expressions at middle-late replication stage, which can enhance mitochondrial-mediated cell death pathway and viral spreading. These results may provide new insights into the mechanism of ER stress-mediated cell death in RNA viruses.

The betanodavirus non-structural protein B2 is a newly discovered necrotic death factor with a still unknown role in regulation of mitochondrial function. In the present study, we examined protein B2-mediated inhibition of mitochondrial complex II activity, which results in ATP depletion and thereby in a bioenergetic crisis in vitro and in vivo. Expression of protein B2 was detected early at 24 h postinfection with red-spotted grouper nervous necrosis virus in the cytoplasm. Later B2 was found in mitochondria using enhanced yellow fluorescent protein (EYFP) and immuno-EM analysis. Furthermore, the B2 mitochondrial targeting signal peptide was analyzed by serial deletion and specific point mutation. The sequence of the B2 targeting signal peptide ( 41 RTFVISAHAA 50 ) was identified and its presence correlated with loss of mitochondrial membrane potential in fish cells. Protein B2 also was found to dramatically inhibit complex II (succinate dehydrogenase) activity, which impairs ATP synthesis in fish GF-1 cells as well as human embryonic kidney 293T cells. Furthermore, when B2 was injected into zebrafish embryos at the one-cell stage to determine its cytotoxicity and ability to inhibit ATP synthesis, we found that B2 caused massive embryonic cell death and depleted ATP resulting in further embryonic death at 10 and 24 h postfertilization. Taken together, our results indicate that betanodavirus protein B2-induced cell death is due to direct targeting of the mitochondrial matrix by a specific signal peptide that targets mitochondria and inhibits mitochondrial complex II activity thereby reducing ATP synthesis.Betanodaviruses cause viral nervous necrosis, an infectious neuropathological condition in fish that is characterized by necrosis of the central nervous system, including the brain and retina and by clinical signs (e.g. abnormal swimming behavior and development of a darker body color) (1). This disease can cause mass mortality in larval and juvenile populations of several teleost species and is of global economic importance (2).The family Nodaviridae is comprised of the genera Alphanodavirus and Betanodavirus. Alphanodavirus predominantly infects insects, whereas Betanodavirus predominantly infects fish (3-5). Nodaviruses are small, non-enveloped, spherical viruses with bipartite positive-sense RNA genomes (RNA1 and RNA2) that are capped but not polyadenylated (3). RNA1 encodes an ϳ110-kDa non-structural protein that has been designated RNA-dependent RNA polymerase or protein A. This protein is vital for replication of the viral genome. RNA2 encodes a 42-kDa capsid protein (6, 7), which may also function in the induction of cell death (8, 9). Nodaviruses also synthesize RNA3, a sub-genomic RNA species from the 3Ј terminus of RNA1. RNA3 contains two putative open reading frames that potentially encode an 111-amino acid protein B1 and a 75-amino acid protein B2 (3, 10, 11). Recently, betanodavirus B1 was found to play an anti-necrotic death function in the early replication stages (10). In contrast, betanodaviru...