bims-apauto 2021-08-08 papers

Issue of 2021–08–08
six papers selected by
Su Hyun Lee, Seoul National University

Autophagy. 2021 Aug 02. 1-13

STING1 is essential for an RNA-virus triggered autophagy.

Rui Zhang, Xiaodong Qin, Yang Yang, Xueliang Zhu, Shuaiyang Zhao, Zhixiong Zhang, Qianlong Su, Zhixun Zhao, Xiangping Yin, Xuelian Meng, Zhidong Zhang, Yanmin Li.

While the functions of STING1 (stimulator of interferon response cGAMP interactor 1) during DNA virus infection had been well documented, the roles STING1 plays during RNA viruses infection is obscure. Infection with foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV), a well-known picornavirus, induces endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress response and autophagy. Here, we found that the FMDV-induced integrated stress response originates from the cellular pattern recognition receptor DDX58/RIG-I (DExD/H-box helicase 58). DDX58 transmits signals to the ER-anchored adaptor protein STING1, which specifically activates the EIF2AK3/PERK (eukaryotic translation initiation factor 2A)-dependent integrated stress response and finally leads to reticulophagy and degradation of STING1 itself. Knockdown/knockout of STING1 or EIF2AK3 suppresses FMDV genome replication and viral protein expression. Reticulophagy induction by STING1 does not require its translocation to the Golgi or IFN response activation. However, STING1 polymerization is necessary for the FMDV-induced integrated stress response and reticulophagy. Our work illustrated the signaling cascades that mediate the cellular stress response to FMDV infection and indicated that induction of autophagy in response to both DNA and RNA virus infection may be an evolutionarily conserved function of STING1. Abbreviations: ATF6: activating transcription factor 6; CGAS: cyclic GMP-AMP synthase; DDX58/RIG-I: DExD/H-box helicase 58; EIF2A/eIF2α: eukaryotic translation initiation factor 2A; EIF2AK3/PERK: eukaryotic translation initiation factor 2 alpha kinase 2; ER: endoplasmic reticulum; ERN1/IRE1: endoplasmic reticulum to nucleus signaling 1; FMD: foot-and-mouth disease; FMDV: foot-and-mouth disease virus; IFIH1/MDA5: interferon induced with helicase C domain 1; MAP1LC3B/LC3B: microtubule associated protein 1 light chain 3 beta; MAVS: mitochondrial antiviral signaling protein; MOI: multiplicity of infection; RETREG1/FAM134B: reticulophagy regulator 1; STING1: stimulator of interferon response cGAMP interactor 1; TCID50: 50% tissue culture infectious dose; XBP1: X-box binding protein 1.

Keywords: Autophagy; EIF2AK3; RNA virus; STING1; integrated stress response

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/15548627.2021.1959086

Chin J Traumatol. 2021 Jul 19. pii: S1008-1275(21)00121-8. [Epub ahead of print]

STING1 in sepsis: Mechanisms, functions, and implications.

Ruo-Xi Zhang, Rui Kang, Dao-Lin Tang.

Sepsis is a life-threatening clinical syndrome and one of the most challenging health problems in the world. Pathologically, sepsis and septic shock are caused by a dysregulated host immune response to infection, which can eventually lead to multiple organ failure and even death. As an adaptor transporter between the endoplasmic reticulum and Golgi apparatus, stimulator of interferon response cGAMP interactor 1 (STING1, also known as STING or TMEM173) has been found to play a vital role at the intersection of innate immunity, inflammation, autophagy, and cell death in response to invading microbial pathogens or endogenous host damage. There is ample evidence that impaired STING1, through its immune and non-immune functions, is involved in the pathological process of sepsis. In this review, we discuss the regulation and function of the STING1 pathway in sepsis and highlight it as a suitable drug target for the treatment of lethal infection.

Keywords: Cell death; Immunity; Inflammation; STING1; Sepsis

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cjtee.2021.07.009

Cell Death Dis. 2021 Aug 06. 12(8): 775

Caspase-8 mutations associated with head and neck cancer differentially retain functional properties related to TRAIL-induced apoptosis and cytokine induction.

Zhibin Cui, Hadas Dabas, Brandon C Leonard, Jamie V Shiah, Jennifer R Grandis, Daniel E Johnson.

The cysteine protease, caspase-8, undergoes dimerization, processing, and activation following stimulation of cells with death ligands such as TRAIL, and mediates TRAIL induction of the extrinsic apoptosis pathway. In addition, caspase-8 mediates TRAIL-induced activation of NF-κB and upregulation of immunosuppressive chemokines/cytokines, via a mechanism independent of caspase-8 catalytic activity. The gene encoding procaspase-8 is mutated in 10% of human head and neck squamous cell carcinomas (HNSCCs). Despite a paucity of experimental evidence, HNSCC-associated caspase-8 mutations are commonly assumed to be loss of function. To investigate their functional properties and phenotypic effects, 18 HNSCC-associated caspase-8 mutants were expressed in doxycycline-inducible fashion in cell line models wherein the endogenous wild-type caspase-8 was deleted. We observed that 5/8 mutants in the amino-terminal prodomain, but 0/10 mutants in the carboxyl-terminal catalytic region, retained an ability to mediate TRAIL-induced apoptosis. Caspase-8 proteins with mutations in the prodomain were defective in dimerization, whereas all ten of the catalytic region mutants efficiently dimerized, revealing an inverse relationship between dimerization and apoptosis induction for the mutant proteins. Roughly half (3/8) of the prodomain mutants and 9/10 of the catalytic region mutants retained the ability to mediate TRAIL induction of immunosuppressive CXCL1, IL-6, or IL-8. Doxycycline-induced expression of wild-type caspase-8 or a representative mutant led to an increased percentage of T and NKT cells in syngeneic HNSCC xenograft tumors. These findings demonstrate that HNSCC-associated caspase-8 mutants retain properties that may influence TRAIL-mediated apoptosis and cytokine induction, as well as the composition of the tumor microenvironment.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41419-021-04066-z

Cell Death Differ. 2021 Aug 05.

Proteasome inhibition triggers the formation of TRAIL receptor 2 platforms for caspase-8 activation that accumulate in the cytosol.

Christian T Hellwig, M Eugenia Delgado, Josip Skoko, Lydia Dyck, Carol Hanna, Alexa Wentges, Claudia Langlais, Cathrin Hagenlocher, Alexandra Mack, David Dinsdale, Kelvin Cain, Marion MacFarlane, Markus Rehm.

Cancer cells that are resistant to Bax/Bak-dependent intrinsic apoptosis can be eliminated by proteasome inhibition. Here, we show that proteasome inhibition induces the formation of high molecular weight platforms in the cytosol that serve to activate caspase-8. The activation complexes contain Fas-associated death domain (FADD) and receptor-interacting serine/threonine-protein kinase 1 (RIPK1). Furthermore, the complexes contain TRAIL-receptor 2 (TRAIL-R2) but not TRAIL-receptor 1 (TRAIL-R1). While RIPK1 inhibition or depletion did not affect proteasome inhibitor-induced cell death, TRAIL-R2 was found essential for efficient caspase-8 activation, since the loss of TRAIL-R2 expression abrogated caspase processing, significantly reduced cell death, and promoted cell re-growth after drug washout. Overall, our study provides novel insight into the mechanisms by which proteasome inhibition eliminates otherwise apoptosis-resistant cells, and highlights the crucial role of a ligand-independent but TRAIL-R2-dependent activation mechanism for caspase-8 in this scenario.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41418-021-00843-7

EMBO Rep. 2021 Aug 02. e52289

Role of FAM134 paralogues in endoplasmic reticulum remodeling, ER-phagy, and Collagen quality control.

Alessio Reggio, Viviana Buonomo, Rayene Berkane, Ramachandra M Bhaskara, Mariana Tellechea, Ivana Peluso, Elena Polishchuk, Giorgia Di Lorenzo, Carmine Cirillo, Marianna Esposito, Adeela Hussain, Antje K Huebner, Christian A Hübner, Carmine Settembre, Gerhard Hummer, Paolo Grumati, Alexandra Stolz.

Degradation of the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) via selective autophagy (ER-phagy) is vital for cellular homeostasis. We identify FAM134A/RETREG2 and FAM134C/RETREG3 as ER-phagy receptors, which predominantly exist in an inactive state under basal conditions. Upon autophagy induction and ER stress signal, they can induce significant ER fragmentation and subsequent lysosomal degradation. FAM134A, FAM134B/RETREG1, and FAM134C are essential for maintaining ER morphology in a LC3-interacting region (LIR)-dependent manner. Overexpression of any FAM134 paralogue has the capacity to significantly augment the general ER-phagy flux upon starvation or ER-stress. Global proteomic analysis of FAM134 overexpressing and knockout cell lines reveals several protein clusters that are distinctly regulated by each of the FAM134 paralogues as well as a cluster of commonly regulated ER-resident proteins. Utilizing pro-Collagen I, as a shared ER-phagy substrate, we observe that FAM134A acts in a LIR-independent manner and compensates for the loss of FAM134B and FAM134C, respectively. FAM134C instead is unable to compensate for the loss of its paralogues. Taken together, our data show that FAM134 paralogues contribute to common and unique ER-phagy pathways.

Keywords: Collagen; ER stress; ER-phagy; FAM134; autophagy

DOI: https://doi.org/10.15252/embr.202052289

Front Oncol. 2021 ;11 691347

Ubiquitin-Like Protein UBD Promotes Cell Proliferation in Colorectal Cancer by Facilitating p53 Degradation.

Hongbin Su, Mengdi Qin, Qiang Liu, Bo Jin, Xianjun Shi, Zheng Xiang.

Purpose: Ubiquitin D (UBD) is a member of the ubiquitin-like modifier (UBL) family and is highly expressed in a variety of cancers including colorectal cancer (CRC). However, the mechanisms of its regulatory roles in CRC are largely elusive. In this study, we revealed the effect of UBD on the proliferation of CRC.
Methods: The expression of UBD in clinical tissue samples of CRC and seven CRC cell lines was detected using qRT-PCR, immunohistochemistry (IHC) and Western blotting. CCK-8, colony formation, EdU and flow cytometry assays were used to detect the functional changes of CRC cells transfected with UBD stable expression plasmids in vitro. A xenograft model was constructed to assess the effect of UBD on the growth of CRC cells in vivo. The connection between UBD and p53 was analyzed using Western blotting, immunoprecipitation, proteasome inhibition assay and Cycloheximide (CHX) chase assay.
Results: UBD was overexpressed in CRC tumor tissues compared with nontumor tissues, and its overexpression was positively associated with the tumor size and TNM stage of CRC patients. Functionally, UBD significantly accelerated CRC cell viability and proliferation in vitro and promoted tumorigenesis in vivo. Mechanistically, UBD interacted with p53 in CRC cells, downregulated the expression of p53 by regulating its degradation, shortened the p53 half-life, thereby further affecting the decrease in p21 and the increase in Cyclin D1, Cyclin E, CDK2, CDK4 and CDK6. Moreover, in vivo experiments showed that UBD-induced tumor growth in nude mice was dependent on a decrease in p53.
Conclusions: Our study proved that UBD mediates the degradation of p53, thereby facilitating the growth of CRC cells and ultimately promoting the progression of CRC. Therefore, UBD may be a potential therapeutic target and a promising prognostic biomarker for CRC.

Keywords: UBD; colorectal cancer; degradation; p53; proliferation

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3389/fonc.2021.691347