scholarly journals The switch-like expression of heme-regulated kinase 1 mediates neuronal proteostasis following proteasome inhibition

eLife ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Beatriz Alvarez-Castelao ◽  
Susanne tom Dieck ◽  
Claudia M Fusco ◽  
Paul Donlin-Asp ◽  
Julio D Perez ◽  
...  

We examined the feedback between the major protein degradation pathway, the ubiquitin-proteasome system (UPS), and protein synthesis in rat and mouse neurons. When protein degradation was inhibited, we observed a coordinate dramatic reduction in nascent protein synthesis in neuronal cell bodies and dendrites. The mechanism for translation inhibition involved the phosphorylation of eIF2α, surprisingly mediated by eIF2α kinase 1, or heme-regulated kinase inhibitor (HRI). Under basal conditions, neuronal expression of HRI is barely detectable. Following proteasome inhibition, HRI protein levels increase owing to stabilization of HRI and enhanced translation, likely via the increased availability of tRNAs for its rare codons. Once expressed, HRI is constitutively active in neurons because endogenous heme levels are so low; HRI activity results in eIF2α phosphorylation and the resulting inhibition of translation. These data demonstrate a novel role for neuronal HRI that senses and responds to compromised function of the proteasome to restore proteostasis.

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Beatriz Alvarez-Castelao ◽  
Susanne tom Dieck ◽  
Claudia M. Fusco ◽  
Paul G. Donlin-Asp ◽  
Julio D. Perez ◽  
...  

AbstractAll cells, including neurons, have regulatory feedback mechanisms that couple protein synthesis and degradation to maintain and optimize protein concentrations in the face of intra- and extracellular perturbations. We examined the feedback between the major protein degradation pathway, the ubiquitin-proteasome system (UPS), and protein synthesis in neurons. When protein degradation by the UPS was inhibited we observed a coordinate dramatic reduction in nascent protein synthesis in both neuronal cell bodies and dendrites. The mechanism for translation inhibition involved the phosphorylation of eIF2a, surprisingly mediated by eIF2a kinase 1, or heme-regulated kinase inhibitor (HRI), known for its sensitivity to heme levels in erythrocyte precursors (Han et al., 2001). Under basal conditions, neuronal expression of HRI is barely detectable. Following proteasome inhibition, HRI protein levels increase owing to stabilization of the short-lived HRI protein and enhanced translation via the increased availability of tRNAs for rare codons. Once expressed, HRI is constitutively active in neurons because endogenous heme levels are so low; HRI activity results in eIF2a phosphorylation and the resulting inhibition of translation. These data demonstrate a novel role for HRI in neurons, acting as an “immediate early protein” that senses and responds to compromised function of the proteasome to restore proteostasis.One sentence summaryProteasome inhibition leads to a compensatory reduction in neuronal protein synthesis via the stabilization and enhanced translation of short-lived HRI kinase, which is constitutively active upon expression owing to low neuronal heme levels.


Physiology ◽  
2003 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-33 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lars Klimaschewski

Various studies identified the ubiquitin-proteasome system as the prime suspect in causing neurodegenerative diseases. The present review summarizes our current knowledge about the expression, regulation, and functions of this major protein degradation pathway in the brain, with particular reference to the pathogenesis of associated neurological diseases.


2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (Supplement_2) ◽  
pp. ii63-ii63
Author(s):  
Lakshmi Bollu ◽  
Derek Wainwright ◽  
Lijie Zhai ◽  
Erik Ladomersky ◽  
Kristen Lauing ◽  
...  

Abstract INTRODUCTION Indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase 1 (IDO; IDO1) is a rate-limiting enzyme that metabolizes the essential amino acid tryptophan into kynurenine. Recent work by our group has revealed that IDO promotes tumor development and suppresses immune cell functions independent of its enzyme activity. Moreover, pharmacologic IDO enzyme inhibitors that currently serve as the only class of drugs available for targeting immunosuppressive IDO activity, fail to improve the survival of patients with GBM. Here, we developed IDO-Proteolysis Targeting Chimeras (IDO-PROTACs). PROTACs bind to a specific protein and recruit an E3 ubiquitin ligase that enhance proteasome-mediated degradation of the target protein. METHODS A library of ≥100 IDO-PROTACs were developed by joining BMS986205 (IDO binder) with a linker group to various E3-ligase ligands. Western blot analysis of PROTAC-induced IDO degradation was tested in vitro among multiple human and mouse GBM cell lines including U87, GBM6, GBM43 and GL261 along a time course ranging between 1–96 hours of treatment and at varying concentrations. The mechanism of IDO protein degradation was investigated using pharmacologic ligands that inhibit or compete with the proteasome-mediated protein degradation pathway. RESULTS Primary screening identified several IDO-PROTACs with IDO protein degradation potential. Secondary screening showed that our lead compound has a DC50 value of ~0.5µM with an ability to degrade IDO in all GBM cells analyzed, and an initial activity within 12 hours of treatment that extended for up to 96 hours. Mutating the CRBN-binding ligand, pretreatment with the ubiquitin proteasome system inhibitors MG132 or MLN4924 or using unmodified parental compound all inhibited IDO protein degradation. CONCLUSIONS This study developed an initial IDO-PROTAC technology that upon further optimization, can neutralize both IDO enzyme and non-enzyme immunosuppressive effects. When combined with other forms of immunotherapy, IDO-PROTACs have the potential to substantially enhance immunotherapeutic efficacy in patients with GBM.


2011 ◽  
Vol 109 (suppl_1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kedryn K Baskin ◽  
Rebecca Salazar ◽  
Wenhao Chen ◽  
Heinrich Taegtmeyer

The heart adapts to changes in load by remodeling both metabolically and structurally. During this process, cardiomyocytes break down unnecessary or damaged proteins and use the resulting amino acids for the synthesis of new proteins and/or energy provision. Protein degradation via the ubiquitin proteasome system is controlled by ubiquitin ligases, which determine the specific proteins to be degraded. Atrogin-1, a muscle specific ubiquitin ligase, is required for skeletal muscle atrophy, and over-expressing Atrogin-1 inhibits the development of cardiac hypertrophy. We now tested the hypothesis that Atrogin-1 is required for atrophic remodeling of the unloaded heart. Hearts from wild type (WT) and Atrogin-1 -/- mice (8-10 weeks old, n =8-12) were subjected to mechanical unloading by heterotopic transplantation. In WT hearts, seven days of unloading significantly reduced heart weight and myocyte cross-sectional area, while hearts lacking Atrogin-1 significantly hypertrophied (at least a 1.5-fold increase in heart weight, 2-fold increase in myocyte area). Conventional markers of atrophic remodeling, such as the reactivation of the fetal gene program (ANF, MHC isoform switch), were detected in both WT and Atrogin-1 -/- transplanted hearts. Proteasome activity and markers of autophagy were increased after unloading, although not significantly different between WT and Atrogin-1 -/- hearts. Pathways regulating protein synthesis were enhanced in the absence of Atrogin-1; there was an increase in activated Akt and its downstream pathway including mTOR, 4E-BP1, and p70 S6 kinase. Additionally, two known targets of Atrogin-1 involved in hypertrophy and protein synthesis, calcineurin and eukaryotic initiation factor 3f, were upregulated in unloaded Atrogin-1 deficient hearts. Consequently, “unloaded” cardiomyocytes lacking Atrogin-1 in vitro exhibit increased basal rates of protein synthesis. The results suggest that Atrogin-1 not only enhances protein degradation, but also keeps protein synthesis in check. Thus Atrogin-1 has a duel role in regulating cardiac mass.


2015 ◽  
Vol 112 (52) ◽  
pp. 15790-15797 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jinghui Zhao ◽  
Bo Zhai ◽  
Steven P. Gygi ◽  
Alfred Lewis Goldberg

Growth factors and nutrients enhance protein synthesis and suppress overall protein degradation by activating the protein kinase mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR). Conversely, nutrient or serum deprivation inhibits mTOR and stimulates protein breakdown by inducing autophagy, which provides the starved cells with amino acids for protein synthesis and energy production. However, it is unclear whether proteolysis by the ubiquitin proteasome system (UPS), which catalyzes most protein degradation in mammalian cells, also increases when mTOR activity decreases. Here we show that inhibiting mTOR with rapamycin or Torin1 rapidly increases the degradation of long-lived cell proteins, but not short-lived ones, by stimulating proteolysis by proteasomes, in addition to autophagy. This enhanced proteasomal degradation required protein ubiquitination, and within 30 min after mTOR inhibition, the cellular content of K48-linked ubiquitinated proteins increased without any change in proteasome content or activity. This rapid increase in UPS-mediated proteolysis continued for many hours and resulted primarily from inhibition of mTORC1 (not mTORC2), but did not require new protein synthesis or key mTOR targets: S6Ks, 4E-BPs, or Ulks. These findings do not support the recent report that mTORC1 inhibition reduces proteolysis by suppressing proteasome expression [Zhang Y, et al. (2014) Nature 513(7518):440–443]. Several growth-related proteins were identified that were ubiquitinated and degraded more rapidly after mTOR inhibition, including HMG-CoA synthase, whose enhanced degradation probably limits cholesterol biosynthesis upon insulin deficiency. Thus, mTOR inhibition coordinately activates the UPS and autophagy, which provide essential amino acids and, together with the enhanced ubiquitination of anabolic proteins, help slow growth.


2012 ◽  
Vol 111 (suppl_1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kedryn K Baskin ◽  
Rebecca Salazar ◽  
Wenhao Chen ◽  
Heinrich Taegtmeyer

The heart adapts to changes in load by remodeling both metabolically and structurally. During this process, cardiomyocytes break down unnecessary or damaged proteins and use the resulting amino acids for the synthesis of new proteins and/or energy provision. Protein degradation via the ubiquitin proteasome system is controlled by ubiquitin ligases, which determine the specific proteins to be degraded. Atrogin-1 is a muscle specific ubiquitin ligase required for skeletal muscle atrophy, and over-expressing Atrogin-1 inhibits the development of cardiac hypertrophy. We tested the hypothesis that Atrogin-1 is required for atrophic remodeling of the unloaded heart. Hearts from wild type (WT) and Atrogin-1 -/- mice were subjected to mechanical unloading by heterotopic transplantation. In WT hearts, seven days of unloading significantly reduced heart weight and myocyte cross-sectional area, while hearts lacking Atrogin-1 significantly hypertrophied. Conventional markers of atrophic remodeling, such as the reactivation of the fetal gene program were detected in both WT and Atrogin-1 -/-transplanted hearts. Proteasome activity and markers of autophagy were increased after unloading, although not significantly different between WT and Atrogin-1 -/- hearts. Pathways regulating protein synthesis were enhanced in the absence of Atrogin-1; there was an increase in activated Akt and its downstream pathway including mTOR, 4E-BP1, and p70 S6 kinase. Additionally, calcinuerin, a known target of Atrogin-1 involved in hypertrophy and protein synthesis, was upregulated in unloaded Atrogin-1 deficient hearts. Consequently, μunloaded” cardiomyocytes lacking Atrogin-1 in vitro exhibit increased basal rates of protein synthesis. While inhibition of calcineurin decreased rates of protein synthesis in unloaded cardiomyocytes in the absence of Atrogin-1, protein synthesis rates were still higher than in WT unloaded cardiomyocytes. These results suggest that more than one pathway regulating protein synthesis is controlled by Atrogin-1 in the heart. Furthermore, the data provide evidence that Atrogin-1 not only enhances protein degradation, but also keeps protein synthesis in check. Thus Atrogin-1 has a duel role in regulating cardiac mass.


2020 ◽  
Vol 14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Imane Bjij ◽  
Ismail Hdoufane ◽  
Mahmoud Soliman ◽  
Menče Najdoska-Bogdanov ◽  
Driss Cherqaoui

: The ubiquitin proteasome system (UPS) is a crucial protein degradation pathway that involves several enzymes to maintain cellular protein homeostasis. This system has emerged as a major drug target against certain types of cancer as a disruption at the cellular level of UPS enzyme components forces the transformation of normal cell into cancerous cell. Although enormous advancements have been achieved in the understanding of tumorigenesis, efficient cancer therapy remains a goal towards alleviating this serious health issue. Since UPS has become a promising target for anticancer therapies, herein we provide comprehensive review of the ubiquitin proteasome system as a significant process for protein degradation. Herein, the anti-cancer therapeutic potential of this pathway is also discussed.


Cancers ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (12) ◽  
pp. 3079
Author(s):  
Gabriel LaPlante ◽  
Wei Zhang

The ubiquitin-proteasome system (UPS) is a critical regulator of cellular protein levels and activity. It is, therefore, not surprising that its dysregulation is implicated in numerous human diseases, including many types of cancer. Moreover, since cancer cells exhibit increased rates of protein turnover, their heightened dependence on the UPS makes it an attractive target for inhibition via targeted therapeutics. Indeed, the clinical application of proteasome inhibitors in treatment of multiple myeloma has been very successful, stimulating the development of small-molecule inhibitors targeting other UPS components. On the other hand, while the discovery of potent and selective chemical compounds can be both challenging and time consuming, the area of targeted protein degradation through utilization of the UPS machinery has seen promising developments in recent years. The repertoire of proteolysis-targeting chimeras (PROTACs), which employ E3 ligases for the degradation of cancer-related proteins via the proteasome, continues to grow. In this review, we will provide a thorough overview of small-molecule UPS inhibitors and highlight advancements in the development of targeted protein degradation strategies for cancer therapeutics.


2021 ◽  
pp. 247255522110175
Author(s):  
Peter Stacey ◽  
Hannah Lithgow ◽  
Xiao Lewell ◽  
Agnieszka Konopacka ◽  
Stephen Besley ◽  
...  

Targeted protein degradation is an emerging new strategy for the modulation of intracellular protein levels with applications in chemical biology and drug discovery. One approach to enable this strategy is to redirect the ubiquitin–proteasome system to mark and degrade target proteins of interest (POIs) through the use of proteolysis targeting chimeras (PROTACs). Although great progress has been made in enabling PROTACs as a platform, there are still a limited number of E3 ligases that have been employed for PROTAC design. Herein we report a novel phenotypic screening approach for the identification of E3 ligase binders. The key concept underlying this approach is the high-throughput modification of screening compounds with a chloroalkane moiety to generate HaloPROTACs in situ, which were then evaluated for their ability to degrade a GFP-HaloTag fusion protein in a cellular context. As proof of concept, we demonstrated that we could generate and detect functional HaloPROTACs in situ, using a validated Von Hippel–Lindau (VHL) binder that successfully degraded the GFP-HaloTag fusion protein in living cells. We then used this method to prepare and screen a library of approximately 2000 prospective E3 ligase-recruiting molecules.


2010 ◽  
Vol 84 (21) ◽  
pp. 11056-11066 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guang Gao ◽  
Jerry Wong ◽  
Jingchun Zhang ◽  
Ivy Mao ◽  
Jayant Shravah ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT Coxsackievirus B3 (CVB3) is a small RNA virus associated with diseases such as myocarditis, meningitis, and pancreatitis. We have previously demonstrated that proteasome inhibition reduces CVB3 replication and attenuates virus-induced myocarditis. However, the underlying mechanisms by which the ubiquitin/proteasome system regulates CVB replication remain unclear. In this study, we investigated the role of REGγ, a member of the 11S proteasome activator, in CVB3 replication. We showed that overexpression of REGγ promoted CVB3 replication but that knockdown of REGγ led to reduced CVB3 replication. We further demonstrated that REGγ-mediated p53 proteolysis contributes, as least in part, to the proviral function of REGγ. Although total protein levels of REGγ remained unaltered after CVB3 infection, virus infection induced a redistribution of REGγ from the nucleus to the cytoplasm, rendering an opportunity for a direct interaction of REGγ with viral proteins and/or host proteins (e.g., p53), which controls viral growth and thereby enhances viral infectivity. Further analyses suggested a potential modification of REGγ by SUMO following CVB3 infection, which was verified by both in vitro and in vivo sumoylation assays. Sumoylation of REGγ may play a role in its nuclear export during CVB3 infection. Taken together, our results present the first evidence that the host REGγ pathway is utilized and modified during CVB3 infection to promote efficient viral replication.


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