Mitochondrial aldehyde dehydrogenase 2 (ALDH2) in the liver removes toxic aldehydes including acetaldehyde, an intermediate of ethanol metabolism. Nearly 40% of East Asians inherit an inactive ALDH2*2 variant, which has a lysine-for-glutamate substitution at position 487 (E487K), and show a characteristic alcohol flush reaction after drinking and a higher risk for gastrointestinal cancers. Here we report the characterization of knockin mice in which the ALDH2(E487K) mutation is inserted into the endogenous murine Aldh2 locus. These mutants recapitulate essentially all human phenotypes including impaired clearance of acetaldehyde, increased sensitivity to acute or chronic alcohol-induced toxicity, and reduced ALDH2 expression due to a dominant-negative effect of the mutation. When treated with a chemical carcinogen, these mutants exhibit increased DNA damage response in hepatocytes, pronounced liver injury, and accelerated development of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Importantly, ALDH2 protein levels are also significantly lower in patient HCC than in peritumor or normal liver tissues. Our results reveal that ALDH2 functions as a tumor suppressor by maintaining genomic stability in the liver, and the common human ALDH2 variant would present a significant risk factor for hepatocarcinogenesis. Our study suggests that the ALDH2*2 allele-alcohol interaction may be an even greater human public health hazard than previously appreciated. ALDH2*2 polymorphism | Asian flush | alcohol metabolism | mouse model | liver cancer M itochondrial aldehyde dehydrogenase 2 (ALDH2) is essential for alcohol detoxification. It is the second enzyme in the major oxidative pathway of alcohol metabolism, removing acetaldehyde (ACE), a toxic intermediate product from ethanol metabolism (1). More than 500 million people worldwide, mostly in East Asia, have a G-to-A point mutation in their ALDH2 gene (2, 3). This mutation results in a glutamic acid-to-lysine substitution at residue 487 (E487K) of the human ALDH2 protein (designated ALDH2*2). ALDH2*2 has significantly reduced ability to metabolize ACE (4, 5). Importantly, its activity is partially dominant-negative over that of the wild-type ALDH2*1, due to the structural alterations introduced by the mutation to the ALDH2 homotetramer complex (6). As a result, individuals with a heterozygous ALDH2*2/2*1 genotype have less than half the wild-type activity, and ALDH2*2/2*2 homozygotes have very low residual activity (7). Accumulated ACE can cause an alcohol flush reaction, commonly found in Asians with this variant after alcohol consumption (also called "Asian glow").ACE binds to cellular proteins and DNA, leading to DNA damage and organ injury (8). Specifically, endogenous aldehydes are detrimental to hematopoietic stem cells that are defective in Fanconi anemia DNA repair (9, 10). As a result, Fanconi anemia patients with the ALDH2*2 allele exhibit accelerated disease progression (11). ALDH2*2 can also increase the risk for gastrointestinal cancers, such as gastric carcinoma (12), esophagea...

Developmental arrest, a critical component of the life cycle in animals as diverse as nematodes (dauer state), insects (diapause), and vertebrates (hibernation), results in dramatic depression of the metabolic rate and a profound extension in longevity. Although many details of the hormonal systems controlling developmental arrest are well-known, we know little about the interactions between metabolic events and the hormones controlling the arrested state. Here, we show that diapause is regulated by an interplay between blood-borne metabolites and regulatory centers within the brain. Gene expression in the fat body, the insect equivalent of the liver, is strongly suppressed during diapause, resulting in low levels of tricarboxylic acid (TCA) intermediates circulating within the blood, and at diapause termination, the fat body becomes activated, releasing an abundance of TCA intermediates that act on the brain to stimulate synthesis of regulatory peptides that prompt production of the insect growth hormone ecdysone. This model is supported by our success in breaking diapause by injecting a mixture of TCA intermediates and upstream metabolites. The results underscore the importance of cross-talk between the brain and fat body as a regulator of diapause and suggest that the TCA cycle may be a checkpoint for regulating different forms of animal dormancy.prothoracicotropic hormone | glucose | pyruvate A s days shorten in late summer and temperatures drop, many insects respond by entering an overwintering diapause, a form of developmental arrest characterized by metabolic depression. The major endocrine events that regulate diapause are fairly well-understood. In larvae and pupae, the arrest is usually a consequence of the brain's failure to produce or release prothoracicotropic hormone (PTTH), a neuropeptide needed to stimulate the prothoracic gland to synthesize the steroid hormones ecdysteroids (20-hydroxyecdysone is the most active form and will be referred to hereafter as ecdysone) (1). Without ecdysone, the insect remains locked in a developmental arrest that persists as long as ecdysone is absent.Specific patterns of gene expression and unique metabolic profiles characterize diapause (2-4), but the interactions between genes, metabolites, and the major endocrine centers are poorly known. One of the most conspicuous metabolic patterns during diapause in insects and dormancy in other animals (5-7) is a shift to anaerobic metabolism favoring glycolysis and gluconeogenesis. Although it is usually assumed that changes in abundance of specific metabolites are downstream responses to the diapause program, the demonstration that elevated sorbitol is the cause, rather than the consequence, of developmental arrest in embryos of the silk moth (8) suggests the possibility that the metabolite profile itself may influence the diapause decision. This possibility is tested here by monitoring changes in metabolite abundance in association with diapause and then showing that artificially boosting the abundance of nondiapause met...

Age-related changes to histone levels are seen in many species. However, it is unclear whether changes to histone expression could be exploited to ameliorate the effects of ageing in multicellular organisms. Here we show that inhibition of mTORC1 by the lifespan-extending drug rapamycin increases expression of histones H3 and H4 post-transcriptionally, through eIF3-mediated translation. Elevated expression of H3/H4 in intestinal enterocytes in Drosophila alters chromatin organization, induces intestinal autophagy through transcriptional regulation, prevents age-related decline in the intestine. Importantly, it also mediates rapamycin-induced longevity and intestinal health. Histones H3/H4 regulate expression of an autophagy cargo adaptor Bchs (WDFY3 in mammals), increased expression of which in enterocytes mediates increased H3/H4-dependent healthy longevity. In mice, rapamycin treatment increases expression of histone proteins and Wdfy3 transcription, and alters chromatin organisation in the small intestine, suggesting the mTORC1-histone axis is at least partially conserved in mammals and may offer new targets for anti-ageing interventions.

Diapause is a developmental arrest that allows an organism to survive unfavorable environmental conditions and is induced by environmental signals at a certain sensitive developmental stage. In Helicoverpa armigera, the larval brain receives the environmental signals for diapause induction and then regulates diapause entry at the pupal stage. Here, combined proteomic and metabolomic differential display analysis was performed on the H. armigera larval brain. Using two-dimensional electrophoresis, it was found that 22 proteins were increased and 27 proteins were decreased in the diapause-destined larval brain, 37 of which were successfully identified by MALDI-TOF/TOF mass spectrometry. RT-PCR and Western blot analyses showed that the expression levels of the differentially expressed proteins were consistent with the 2-DE results. Furthermore, a total of 49 metabolites were identified in the larval brain by GC-MS analysis, including 4 metabolites at high concentrations and 14 metabolites at low concentrations. The results gave us a clue to understand the governing molecular events of the prediapause phase. Those differences that exist in the induction phase of diapause-destined individuals are probably relevant to a special memory mechanism for photoperiodic information storage, and those differences that exist in the preparation phase are likely to regulate accumulation of specific energy reserves in diapause-destined individuals.

Diapause is a period of developmental arrest that allows a species to adapt to unfavorable conditions. Many insect species reduce metabolic activity and then enter diapause at a certain stage in their life cycles. The cotton bollworm, Helicoverpa armigera, will be destined for pupal diapause when larvae are reared under short daylengths and low temperature. The brain is an important organ for diapause decision, and some signaling molecules from the brain of diapause-destined individuals are released into the hemolymph to regulate diapause. In this study, we performed 2-D gel-based comparative proteomic and phosphoproteomic analyses to search for differentially expressed proteins between nondiapause- and diapause-destined pupal brains. A total of 79 proteins and 23 phosphoproteins showed significant differences between these two groups, and 41 proteins and 10 phosphoproteins were identified by MALDI-TOF/TOF MS. Further, gene expression patterns in diapause- and nondiapause-destined pupal brains were confirmed by RT-PCR or Western blot analysis. These differentially expressed proteins act in the metabolic change, stress response, and signal transduction pathways at early pupal stage for diapause initiation. Thus, these identified proteins may depress metabolism in diapause-destined pupae to lead the insect to enter developmental arrest.

BackgroundDiapause is programmed developmental arrest coupled with the depression of metabolic activity and the enhancement of stress resistance. Pupal diapause is induced by environmental signals and is prepared during the prediapause phase. In the cotton bollworm, Helicoverpa armigera, the prediapause phase, which contains two sub-phases, diapause induction and preparation, occurs in the larval stage. Here, we performed parallel proteomic and metabolomic analyses on H. armigera larval hemolymph during the prediapause phase.ResultsBy two-dimensional electrophoresis, 37 proteins were shown to be differentially expressed in diapause-destined larvae. Of these proteins, 28 were successfully identified by MALDI-TOF/TOF mass spectrometry. Moreover, a total of 22 altered metabolites were found in diapause-destined larval hemolymph by GC-MS analysis, and the levels of 17 metabolites were elevated and 5 were decreased.ConclusionsThe proteins and metabolites with significantly altered levels play different roles in diapause-destined larvae, including diapause induction, metabolic storage, immune response, stress tolerance, and others. Because hemolymph circulates through the whole body of an insect, these differences found in diapause-destined larvae most likely correspond to upstream endocrine signals and would further influence other organ/tissue activities to determine the insect’s fact: diapause or development.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/1471-2164-14-751) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Insect fat body is the organ for intermediary metabolism, comparable to vertebrate liver and adipose tissue. Larval fat body is disintegrated to individual fat body cells and then adult fat body is remodeled at the pupal stage. However, little is known about the dissociation mechanism. We find that the moth Helicoverpa armigera cathepsin L (Har-CL) is expressed heavily in the fat body and is released from fat body cells into the extracellular matrix. The inhibitor and RNAi experiments demonstrate that Har-CL functions in the fat body dissociation in H. armigera. Further, a nuclear protein is identified to be transcription factor Har-Relish, which was found in insect immune response and specifically binds to the promoter of Har-CL gene to regulate its activity. Har-Relish also responds to the steroid hormone ecdysone. Thus, the dissociation of the larval fat body is involved in the hormone (ecdysone)-transcription factor (Relish)-target gene (cathepsin L) regulatory pathway.

The licensed drug rapamycin has potential to be repurposed for geroprotection. A key challenge is to avoid adverse side effects from continuous dosing. Here we show that geroprotective effects of chronic rapamycin treatment can be obtained with a brief pulse of the drug in early adulthood in female Drosophila and mice. In Drosophila, a brief, early rapamycin treatment of adults extended lifespan and attenuated age-related decline in the intestine to the same degree as lifelong dosing. Lasting memory of earlier treatment was mediated by elevated autophagy in intestinal enterocytes, accompanied by increased levels of intestinal LManV and lysozyme. Brief elevation of autophagy in early adulthood itself induced a long-term increase in autophagy. In mice, a 3-month, early treatment also induced a memory effect, with maintenance similar to chronic treatment, of lysozyme distribution, Man2B1 level in intestinal crypts, Paneth cell architecture and gut barrier function, even 6 months after rapamycin was withdrawn.