bims-nenemi 2022-04-10 papers

bims-nenemi

Biomed News

on Neuroinflammation, neurodegeneration and mitochondria

Issue of 2022‒04‒10
eleven papers selected by
Marco Tigano
Thomas Jefferson University

FGF21 modulates mitochondrial stress response in cardiomyocytes only under mild mitochondrial dysfunction.
Mitochondrial DNA Release Contributes to Intestinal Ischemia/Reperfusion Injury.
Signaling from the RNA sensor RIG-I is regulated by ufmylation.
A mitochondrial long-chain fatty acid oxidation defect leads to tRNA uncharging and activation of the integrated stress response in the mouse heart.
Spontaneous activity of the mitochondrial apoptosis pathway drives chromosomal defects, the appearance of micronuclei and cancer metastasis through the Caspase-Activated DNAse.
STAG2 regulates interferon signaling in melanoma via enhancer loop reprogramming.
DELE1 tracks perturbed protein import and processing in human mitochondria.
Activated glia cells cause bioenergetic impairment of neurons that can be rescued by knock-down of the mitochondrial calcium uniporter.
LncRNA HABON promoted liver cancer cells survival under hypoxia by inhibiting mPTP opening.
Clinical implementation of RNA sequencing for Mendelian disease diagnostics.
Inhibition of the PINK1-Parkin Pathway Enhances the Lethality of Sorafenib and Regorafenib in Hepatocellular Carcinoma.

Sci Adv. 2022 Apr 08. 8(14): eabn7105

FGF21 modulates mitochondrial stress response in cardiomyocytes only under mild mitochondrial dysfunction.

Marijana Croon, Karolina Szczepanowska, Milica Popovic, Christina Lienkamp, Katharina Senft, Christoph Paul Brandscheid, Theresa Bock, Leoni Gnatzy-Feik, Artem Ashurov, Richard James Acton, Harshita Kaul, Claire Pujol, Stephan Rosenkranz, Marcus Krüger, Aleksandra Trifunovic.

The mitochondrial integrated stress response (mitoISR) has emerged as a major adaptive pathway to respiratory chain deficiency, but both the tissue specificity of its regulation, and how mitoISR adapts to different levels of mitochondrial dysfunction are largely unknown. Here, we report that diverse levels of mitochondrial cardiomyopathy activate mitoISR, including high production of FGF21, a cytokine with both paracrine and endocrine function, shown to be induced by respiratory chain dysfunction. Although being fully dispensable for the cell-autonomous and systemic responses to severe mitochondrial cardiomyopathy, in the conditions of mild-to-moderate cardiac OXPHOS dysfunction, FGF21 regulates a portion of mitoISR. In the absence of FGF21, a large part of the metabolic adaptation to mitochondrial dysfunction (one-carbon metabolism, transsulfuration, and serine and proline biosynthesis) is strongly blunted, independent of the primary mitoISR activator ATF4. Collectively, our work highlights the complexity of mitochondrial stress responses by revealing the importance of the tissue specificity and dose dependency of mitoISR.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abn7105
Front Pharmacol. 2022 ;13 854994

Mitochondrial DNA Release Contributes to Intestinal Ischemia/Reperfusion Injury.

Shishi Liao, Jie Luo, Tulanisa Kadier, Ke Ding, Rong Chen, Qingtao Meng.

  Mitochondria release many damage-associated molecular patterns (DAMPs) when cells are damaged or stressed, with mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) being. MtDNA activates innate immune responses and induces inflammation through the TLR-9, NLRP3 inflammasome, and cGAS-STING signaling pathways. Released inflammatory factors cause damage to intestinal barrier function. Many bacteria and endotoxins migrate to the circulatory system and lymphatic system, leading to systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS) and even damaging the function of multiple organs throughout the body. This process may ultimately lead to multiple organ dysfunction syndrome (MODS). Recent studies have shown that various factors, such as the release of mtDNA and the massive infiltration of inflammatory factors, can cause intestinal ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury. This destroys intestinal barrier function, induces an inflammatory storm, leads to SIRS, increases the vulnerability of organs, and develops into MODS. Mitophagy eliminates dysfunctional mitochondria to maintain cellular homeostasis. This review discusses mtDNA release during the pathogenesis of intestinal I/R and summarizes methods for the prevention or treatment of intestinal I/R. We also discuss the effects of inflammation and increased intestinal barrier permeability on drugs.

Keywords:  damage-associated molecular patterns2; inflammation3; intestinal barrier function5; ischemia/reperfusion injury4; mitochondrial DNA1; multiple organ dysfunction syndrome7; systemic inflammatory response syndrome6

DOI:  https://doi.org/10.3389/fphar.2022.854994
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2022 Apr 12. 119(15): e2119531119

Signaling from the RNA sensor RIG-I is regulated by ufmylation.

Daltry L Snider, Moonhee Park, Kristen A Murphy, Dia C Beachboard, Stacy M Horner.

  SignificanceThe viral RNA sensor RIG-I initiates the antiviral innate immune response by activating a signaling cascade that induces interferon. Activation of the RIG-I signaling pathway is highly regulated to quickly mount a protective immune response while preventing dysregulation that can lead to excessive inflammation or autoimmune disorders. Here, we characterize one such mechanism of regulation. We describe that UFL1, an E3 ligase for the ubiquitin-like modifier conjugation system called ufmylation, is important to promote RIG-I signaling. Using molecular approaches, we show that ufmylation promotes RIG-I interaction with the membrane-targeting protein 14-3-3ε. As such, ufmylation positively regulates RIG-I recruitment to its signaling adaptor protein MAVS for induction of interferon in response to RNA virus infection.

Keywords:  RLR signaling; mitochondrial-associated ER membranes; retinoic acid-inducible gene I; ubiquitin-like modifications

DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2119531119
Cardiovasc Res. 2022 Apr 07. pii: cvac050. [Epub ahead of print]

A mitochondrial long-chain fatty acid oxidation defect leads to tRNA uncharging and activation of the integrated stress response in the mouse heart.

Pablo Ranea-Robles, Natalya N Pavlova, Aaron Bender, Andrea S Pereyra, Jessica M Ellis, Brandon Stauffer, Chunli Yu, Craig B Thompson, Carmen Argmann, Michelle Puchowicz, Sander M Houten.

  AIMS: Cardiomyopathy and arrhythmias can be severe presentations in patients with inherited defects of mitochondrial long-chain fatty acid β-oxidation (FAO). The pathophysiological mechanisms that underlie these cardiac abnormalities remain largely unknown. We investigated the molecular adaptations to a FAO deficiency in the heart using the long-chain acyl-CoA dehydrogenase (LCAD) knockout (KO) mouse model.METHODS AND RESULTS: We observed enrichment of amino acid metabolic pathways and of ATF4 target genes among the upregulated genes in the LCAD KO heart transcriptome. We also found a prominent activation of the eIF2α/ATF4 axis at the protein level that was independent of the feeding status, in addition to a reduction of cardiac protein synthesis during a short period of food withdrawal. These findings are consistent with an activation of the integrated stress response (ISR) in the LCAD KO mouse heart. Notably, charging of several tRNAs, such as tRNAGln was decreased in LCAD KO hearts, reflecting a reduced availability of cardiac amino acids, in particular, glutamine. We replicated the activation of the ISR in hearts of mice with a muscle-specific deletion of carnitine palmitoyltransferase 2.
CONCLUSIONS: Our results show that perturbations in amino acid metabolism caused by long-chain FAO deficiency impact on cardiac metabolic signaling, in particular the ISR. These results may serve as a foundation for investigating the role of the ISR in the cardiac pathology associated with long-chain FAO defects.Translational Perspective: The heart relies mainly on mitochondrial fatty acid β-oxidation (FAO) for its high energy requirements. The heart disease observed in patients with a genetic defect in this pathway highlights the importance of FAO for cardiac health. We show that the consequences of a FAO defect extend beyond cardiac energy homeostasis and include amino acid metabolism and associated signaling pathways such as the integrated stress response.

Keywords:  LCAD; amino acids; fatty acid oxidation; hypertrophy; tRNA

DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1093/cvr/cvac050
Cell Death Dis. 2022 Apr 07. 13(4): 315

Spontaneous activity of the mitochondrial apoptosis pathway drives chromosomal defects, the appearance of micronuclei and cancer metastasis through the Caspase-Activated DNAse.

Aladin Haimovici, Christoph Höfer, Mohamed Tarek Badr, Elham Bavafaye Haghighi, Tarek Amer, Melanie Boerries, Peter Bronsert, Ievgen Glavynskyi, Deborah Fanfone, Gabriel Ichim, Nico Thilmany, Arnim Weber, Tilman Brummer, Corinna Spohr, Rupert Öllinger, Klaus-Peter Janssen, Roland Rad, Georg Häcker.

Micronuclei are DNA-containing structures separate from the nucleus found in cancer cells. Micronuclei are recognized by the immune sensor axis cGAS/STING, driving cancer metastasis. The mitochondrial apoptosis apparatus can be experimentally triggered to a non-apoptotic level, and this can drive the appearance of micronuclei through the Caspase-activated DNAse (CAD). We tested whether spontaneously appearing micronuclei in cancer cells are linked to sub-lethal apoptotic signals. Inhibition of mitochondrial apoptosis or of CAD reduced the number of micronuclei in tumor cell lines as well as the number of chromosomal misalignments in tumor cells and intestinal organoids. Blockade of mitochondrial apoptosis or deletion of CAD reduced, while experimental activation CAD, STING-dependently, enhanced aggressive growth of tumor cells in vitro. Deletion of CAD from human cancer cells reduced metastasis in xenograft models. CAD-deficient cells displayed a substantially altered gene-expression profile, and a CAD-associated gene expression 'signature' strongly predicted survival in cancer patients. Thus, low-level activity in the mitochondrial apoptosis apparatus operates through CAD-dependent gene-induction and STING-activation and has substantial impact on metastasis in cancer.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41419-022-04768-y
Nat Commun. 2022 Apr 06. 13(1): 1859

STAG2 regulates interferon signaling in melanoma via enhancer loop reprogramming.

Zhaowei Chu, Lei Gu, Yeguang Hu, Xiaoyang Zhang, Man Li, Jiajia Chen, Da Teng, Man Huang, Che-Hung Shen, Li Cai, Toshimi Yoshida, Yifeng Qi, Zhixin Niu, Austin Feng, Songmei Geng, Dennie T Frederick, Emma Specht, Adriano Piris, Ryan J Sullivan, Keith T Flaherty, Genevieve M Boland, Katia Georgopoulos, David Liu, Yang Shi, Bin Zheng.

The cohesin complex participates in the organization of 3D genome through generating and maintaining DNA loops. Stromal antigen 2 (STAG2), a core subunit of the cohesin complex, is frequently mutated in various cancers. However, the impact of STAG2 inactivation on 3D genome organization, especially the long-range enhancer-promoter contacts and subsequent gene expression control in cancer, remains poorly understood. Here we show that depletion of STAG2 in melanoma cells leads to expansion of topologically associating domains (TADs) and enhances the formation of acetylated histone H3 lysine 27 (H3K27ac)-associated DNA loops at sites where binding of STAG2 is switched to its paralog STAG1. We further identify Interferon Regulatory Factor 9 (IRF9) as a major direct target of STAG2 in melanoma cells via integrated RNA-seq, STAG2 ChIP-seq and H3K27ac HiChIP analyses. We demonstrate that loss of STAG2 activates IRF9 through modulating the 3D genome organization, which in turn enhances type I interferon signaling and increases the expression of PD-L1. Our findings not only establish a previously unknown role of the STAG2 to STAG1 switch in 3D genome organization, but also reveal a functional link between STAG2 and interferon signaling in cancer cells, which may enhance the immune evasion potential in STAG2-mutant cancer.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-29541-9
Nat Commun. 2022 Apr 06. 13(1): 1853

DELE1 tracks perturbed protein import and processing in human mitochondria.

Evelyn Fessler, Luisa Krumwiede, Lucas T Jae.

Protein homeostatic control of mitochondria is key to age-related diseases and organismal decline. However, it is unknown how the diverse types of stress experienced by mitochondria can be integrated and appropriately responded to in human cells. Here we identify perturbations in the ancient conserved processes of mitochondrial protein import and processing as sources of DELE1 activation: DELE1 is continuously sorted across both mitochondrial membranes into the matrix and detects different types of perturbations along the way. DELE1 molecules in transit can become licensed for mitochondrial release and stress signaling through proteolytic removal of N-terminal sorting signals. Import defects that occur at the mitochondrial surface allow DELE1 precursors to bind and activate downstream factor HRI without the need for cleavage. Genome-wide genetics reveal that DELE1 additionally responds to compromised presequence processing by the matrix proteases PITRM1 and MPP, which are mutated in neurodegenerative diseases. These mechanisms rationalize DELE1-dependent mitochondrial stress integration in the human system and may inform future therapies of neuropathies.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-29479-y
Biochem Biophys Res Commun. 2022 Mar 25. pii: S0006-291X(22)00465-X. [Epub ahead of print]608 45-51

Activated glia cells cause bioenergetic impairment of neurons that can be rescued by knock-down of the mitochondrial calcium uniporter.

Angela Maria Casaril, Athanasios Katsalifis, Rolf M Schmidt, Carlos Bas-Orth.

  Neuroinflammation is a hallmark of various neurological disorders including autoimmune-, neurodegenerative and neuropsychiatric diseases. In neuroinflammation, activated microglia and astrocytes release soluble mediators such as cytokines, glutamate, and reactive oxygen species that negatively affect neuronal function and viability, and thus contribute to neurodegeneration during disease progression. Therefore, the development of neuroprotective strategies might be important in addition to treating inflammation in these diseases. Mitochondria are promising cellular targets for neuroprotective interventions: They are among the first structures affected in many neuroinflammatory diseases, with mitochondrial impairment ranging from impaired respiratory activity and reduced mitochondrial membrane potential to mitochondrial oxidation and fragmentation. Therefore, we developed a cell culture model that resembles an early state of inflammation-induced neuronal mitochondrial dysfunction preceding neuronal cell death, and can be used to test mito- and neuroprotective strategies. Rat primary cortical neurons were challenged with conditioned medium from mixed primary cultures of rat microglia and astrocytes that had been activated with lipopolysaccharide and ATP. When sublethal amounts of glia-conditioned medium were added to neurons for 24 h, mitochondrial membrane potential and ATP levels were decreased, whereas mitochondrial redox state remained unaffected. Effects on mitochondrial membrane potential and ATP levels were ameliorated by knock-down of the mitochondrial calcium uniporter in neurons. This study suggests that neuronal bioenergetic failure is an early event during neuroinflammation and it identifies the mitochondrial calcium uniporter as a candidate target for neuroprotection in this context.

Keywords:  Astrocytes; Energy depletion; Microglia; Mitochondria; Neuroinflammation

DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbrc.2022.03.120
Cell Death Discov. 2022 Apr 06. 8(1): 171

LncRNA HABON promoted liver cancer cells survival under hypoxia by inhibiting mPTP opening.

Lulu Wo, Xin Zhang, Chengning Ma, Cixiang Zhou, Jingchi Li, Zhexuan Hu, Xiufeng Gong, Mengna Zhan, Ming He, Qian Zhao.

Hypoxia is an important feature of the tumor microenvironment (TME). While targeting hypoxic TME is emerging as a potential strategy for treating solid tumors including liver cancer. Recent studies have shown that hypoxia can regulate tumor adaptation to hypoxic TME through long non-coding RNA (lncRNA). In the previous study, we identify a novel hypoxia-activated lncRNA and termed it as HABON. Here, we demonstrated that knockdown of HABON caused necroptosis of tumor tissue and inhibited the subcutaneous tumor growth of SMMC-7721 cells in nude mice. Moreover, knockdown of HABON increased RIPK1 and MLKL expression as well as their phosphorylation level in SMMC-7721 and Huh7 liver cancer cells. Meanwhile, Necrostatin-1 and GSK872 could restore cell death of liver cancer cells caused by knockdown of HABON under hypoxia. The above results suggested that HABON could inhibit hypoxia-induced necroptosis of liver cancer cells. Mechanically, knockdown of HABON in liver cancer cells aggravated mitochondrial dysfunction caused by hypoxia. Furthermore, the RNA pull-down combined with mass spectrometry analysis identified HABON can interact with mitochondria-related protein VDAC1 and the RNA immunoprecipitation (RIP) analysis proved the interaction. In addition, we proved that VDAC1 mediated the mitochondrial permeability transition pore (mPTP) opening, mitochondrial dysfunction, as well as necroptosis caused by knockdown of HABON. Overall, our work demonstrates HABON can reduce hypoxia-induced necroptosis of liver cancer cells and suggests that inhibition of HABON in the hypoxic TME is a potential therapeutic strategy for treating liver cancer.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41420-022-00917-6
Genome Med. 2022 Apr 05. 14(1): 38

Clinical implementation of RNA sequencing for Mendelian disease diagnostics.

Vicente A Yépez, Mirjana Gusic, Robert Kopajtich, Christian Mertes, Nicholas H Smith, Charlotte L Alston, Rui Ban, Skadi Beblo, Riccardo Berutti, Holger Blessing, Elżbieta Ciara, Felix Distelmaier, Peter Freisinger, Johannes Häberle, Susan J Hayflick, Maja Hempel, Yulia S Itkis, Yoshihito Kishita, Thomas Klopstock, Tatiana D Krylova, Costanza Lamperti, Dominic Lenz, Christine Makowski, Signe Mosegaard, Michaela F Müller, Gerard Muñoz-Pujol, Agnieszka Nadel, Akira Ohtake, Yasushi Okazaki, Elena Procopio, Thomas Schwarzmayr, Joél Smet, Christian Staufner, Sarah L Stenton, Tim M Strom, Caterina Terrile, Frederic Tort, Rudy Van Coster, Arnaud Vanlander, Matias Wagner, Manting Xu, Fang Fang, Daniele Ghezzi, Johannes A Mayr, Dorota Piekutowska-Abramczuk, Antonia Ribes, Agnès Rötig, Robert W Taylor, Saskia B Wortmann, Kei Murayama, Thomas Meitinger, Julien Gagneur, Holger Prokisch.

  BACKGROUND: Lack of functional evidence hampers variant interpretation, leaving a large proportion of individuals with a suspected Mendelian disorder without genetic diagnosis after whole genome or whole exome sequencing (WES). Research studies advocate to further sequence transcriptomes to directly and systematically probe gene expression defects. However, collection of additional biopsies and establishment of lab workflows, analytical pipelines, and defined concepts in clinical interpretation of aberrant gene expression are still needed for adopting RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) in routine diagnostics.METHODS: We implemented an automated RNA-seq protocol and a computational workflow with which we analyzed skin fibroblasts of 303 individuals with a suspected mitochondrial disease that previously underwent WES. We also assessed through simulations how aberrant expression and mono-allelic expression tests depend on RNA-seq coverage.
RESULTS: We detected on average 12,500 genes per sample including around 60% of all disease genes-a coverage substantially higher than with whole blood, supporting the use of skin biopsies. We prioritized genes demonstrating aberrant expression, aberrant splicing, or mono-allelic expression. The pipeline required less than 1 week from sample preparation to result reporting and provided a median of eight disease-associated genes per patient for inspection. A genetic diagnosis was established for 16% of the 205 WES-inconclusive cases. Detection of aberrant expression was a major contributor to diagnosis including instances of 50% reduction, which, together with mono-allelic expression, allowed for the diagnosis of dominant disorders caused by haploinsufficiency. Moreover, calling aberrant splicing and variants from RNA-seq data enabled detecting and validating splice-disrupting variants, of which the majority fell outside WES-covered regions.
CONCLUSION: Together, these results show that streamlined experimental and computational processes can accelerate the implementation of RNA-seq in routine diagnostics.

Keywords:  Genetic diagnostics; Mendelian diseases; RNA-seq

DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1186/s13073-022-01019-9
Front Pharmacol. 2022 ;13 851832

Inhibition of the PINK1-Parkin Pathway Enhances the Lethality of Sorafenib and Regorafenib in Hepatocellular Carcinoma.

Shun Zhang, Yixin Wang, Yifan Cao, Jin Wu, Zubin Zhang, Haigang Ren, Xiaohui Xu, Elena Kaznacheyeva, Qing Li, Guanghui Wang.

  Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most common fatal malignancies and the main cause of cancer-related deaths. The multitarget tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) sorafenib and regorafenib are systemic therapeutic drugs approved for the treatment of HCC. Here, we found that sorafenib and regorafenib injured mitochondria by inducing mitochondrial Ca2+ (mtCa2+) overload and mitochondrial permeability transition pore (mPTP) opening, resulting in mitochondria-mediated cell death, which was alleviated by cyclosporin A (CsA), an inhibitor of mPTP. Meanwhile, mPTP opening caused PINK1 accumulation on damaged mitochondria, which recruited Parkin to mitochondria to induce mitophagy. Inhibition of autophagy by the lysosomal inhibitor chloroquine (CQ) or inhibition of mitochondrial fission by mdivi-1 aggravated sorafenib- and regorafenib-induced cell death. Moreover, knockdown of PINK1 also promotes sorafenib- and regorafenib-induced cell death. An in vivo study showed that sorafenib and regorafenib inhibited HepG2 cell growth more effectively in PINK1 knockdown cells than in shNTC cells in null mice. Thus, our data demonstrate that PINK1-Parkin-mediated mitophagy alleviates sorafenib and regorafenib antitumor effects in vitro and in vivo.

Keywords:  HCC; MPTP; PINK1; mitofission; mitophagy; regorafenib; sorafenib

DOI:  https://doi.org/10.3389/fphar.2022.851832