Loss of p19Arf Promotes Fibroblast Survival During Leucine Deprivation

Fibroblasts are quiescent and tumor suppressive in nature but become activated in wound healing and cancer. The response of fibroblasts to cellular stress has not been extensively investigated however the p53 tumor suppressor has been shown to be activated in fibroblasts during nutrient deprivation. Since the p19 Alternative reading frame (p19Arf) tumor suppressor is a key regulator of p53 activation during oncogenic stress, we investigated the role of p19Arf in fibroblasts during nutrient deprivation. Here we show that prolonged leucine deprivation resulted in increased expression and nuclear localization of p19Arf, triggering apoptosis in primary murine adult lung fibroblasts (ALFs). In contrast, the absence of p19Arf during long-term leucine deprivation resulted in increased ALF proliferation, migration and survival through upregulation of the Integrated Stress Response pathway and increased autophagic flux. Our data implicates a new role for p19Arf in response to nutrient deprivation.

A comprehensive overview of PPM1A: From structure to disease

PPM1A (magnesium-dependent phosphatase 1 A, also known as PP2Cα) is a member of the Ser/Thr protein phosphatase family. Protein phosphatases catalyze the removal of phosphate groups from proteins via hydrolysis, thus opposing the role of protein kinases. The PP2C family is generally considered a negative regulator in the eukaryotic stress response pathway. PPM1A can bind and dephosphorylate various proteins and is therefore involved in the regulation of a wide range of physiological processes. It plays a crucial role in transcriptional regulation, cell proliferation, and apoptosis and has been suggested to be closely related to the occurrence and development of cancers of the lung, bladder, and breast, amongst others. Moreover, it is closely related to certain autoimmune diseases and neurodegenerative diseases. In this review, we provide an insight into currently available knowledge of PPM1A, including its structure, biological function, involvement in signaling pathways, and association with diseases. Lastly, we discuss whether PPM1A could be targeted for therapy of certain human conditions.

Elongator Complex Regulates MCL1 Dependency Via IRE1-XBP1 Axis of the ER Stress Response Pathway in Multiple Myeloma

Evasion of apoptosis is a hallmark of cancer wherein overexpression and amplification of pro-survival BCL2-family genes like MCL1 is a common observation. MCL1 is frequently amplified in many hematological cancers like Multiple Myeloma (MM) that depend on it for survival. BH3 mimetic drugs, like the BCL2-specific inhibitor Venetoclax, have been successfully used in the clinic to treat certain cancers, and MCL1-selective inhibitors are currently in clinical development. While inhibition of MCL1 displays promising preclinical activity, many cancer models display acquired or intrinsic resistance to MCL1 inhibitors (MCL1i). As MCL1-targeted therapies progress clinically, understanding mechanisms that lead to resistance will be important to not only identify therapeutically-exploitable targets to combat resistance, but to also determine if these biomarkers could stratify patients most likely to respond to an MCL1i. Here, we used a genome-wide CRISPR knock-out screen to identify mechanisms of resistance to MCL1i AZD5991 in two MM cell lines, KMS11 and KMS34. We used a sgRNA library consisting of about 118,000 sgRNAs (~6 sgRNAs/gene), and treated the cells with DMSO or 1uM AZD5991 for 16 days (5 doublings). We identified 316 genes in KMS11 and 184 genes in KMS34 with >4-fold enrichment of sgRNAs; and 221 genes with >2-fold enrichment of sgRNAs in both cell lines. The sgRNAs targeting BAK and BAX were the most enriched overlapping hits. Using GSEA analysis of the 221 common genes with enriched sgRNAs, we discovered that the tRNA wobble uridine modification as the most enriched pathway. The tRNA U34 mcm5s2 modification is catalyzed by the elongator complex ELP1-6 and cytosolic thiouridylase CTU1/2. Each subunit of the elongator complex is essential for its function and loss of any subunit results in destabilization of the complex. By knocking out ELP4 in five MM cell lines (KMS11, KMS34, KMS12-PE, MM.1S, and RPMI-8226), we first validated the destabilization of the complex by showing a robust decrease in the protein levels of ELP1 and ELP3 via western blot. As the elongator complex has additional functions, we also knocked-out tRNA U34 modification pathway specific CTU1 in KMS11, KMS34, and KMS12-PE cells. We showed that genetic knock-out of ELP4 and CTU1 results in increased resistance to MCL1i in all cell lines tested. We observed the highest increase in MCL1i resistance upon ELP4-KO in KMS11 and RPMI-8226 cell lines. To understand the mechanism behind elongator complex mediated regulation of MCL1 dependency, we performed RNAseq and global proteomics in KMS11 cells (Parental, non-targeting control [NTC], ELP4-KO and CTU1-KO) and RPMI-8226 cells (Parental, NTC, and ELP4-KO). We show that the elongator complex is a regulator of IRE1-XBP1 axis of the ER stress response pathway; and knockout of IRE1 also results in MCL1i-resistance in KMS11 and RPMI8226 cell lines. Mechanistically, we show that loss of elongator complex-mediated downregulation of IRE1-XBP1 axis leads to stabilization of MCL1 and upregulation of BCL-XL and NOXA expression. We further show that upon treatment with MCL1i, KMS11-ELP4-KO cells have less disruption of MCL1:Bim complex and an increase in BCL-XL:Bim complex as compared with KMS11-NTC cells. The net increase in pro-survival MCL1 and BCL-XL proteins in ELP4-KO cells resulting in lower levels of unsequestered BIM upon AZD5991 treatment suggests a reduction in apoptotic priming. The mechanistic link between the elongator complex and ER stress response pathway led us to test ER stress inducing drugs in these cell lines. We observed that ELP4-KO results in increased resistance to proteasome inhibitor Bortezomib and other ER stress inducers like Tunicamycin, Thapsigargin, and BrefeldinA as a monotherapy or in combination with AZD5991. These data are consistent with our hypothesis that ELP4-KO cells have reduced apoptotic priming and are thus multi-drug resistant. As bortezomib is used in the clinic to treat MM patients, we asked if an elongator gene signature could be used to predict response to current therapies. We show that the elongator complex components could be used as a gene signature to stratify overall survival in MM patients (MMRF CoMMpass dataset). Moreover, ER stress response gene signature has been shown to be repressed in drug-resistant MM. Taken together, an integrated elongator and IRE-XBP1 gene signature could be a strong predictor of therapy response in MM . Disclosures Aryal: AstraZeneca: Current Employment, Current equity holder in publicly-traded company. Sundarrajan: AstraZeneca: Ended employment in the past 24 months. Boiko: AstraZeneca: Current Employment, Current equity holder in publicly-traded company. Jenkins: AstraZeneca: Current Employment, Current equity holder in publicly-traded company. Liu: AstraZeneca: Current Employment, Current equity holder in publicly-traded company. Ahdesmaki: AstraZeneca: Current Employment, Current equity holder in publicly-traded company. Bornot: AstraZeneca: Current Employment, Current equity holder in publicly-traded company. Jarnuczak: AstraZeneca: Current Employment, Current equity holder in publicly-traded company. Miele: AstraZeneca: Current Employment, Current equity holder in publicly-traded company. McDermott: AstraZeneca: Current Employment, Current equity holder in publicly-traded company. Fawell: AstraZeneca: Current Employment, Current equity holder in publicly-traded company. Drew: AstraZeneca: Current Employment, Current equity holder in publicly-traded company. Boise: AbbVie/Genentech: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; AstraZeneca: Honoraria, Research Funding. Cidado: AstraZeneca: Current Employment, Current equity holder in publicly-traded company.

Evolutionary Conservation of Systemic and Reversible Amyloid Aggregation

In response to environmental stress, human cells have been shown to form reversible amyloid aggregates within the nucleus, termed amyloid bodies (A-bodies). These protective physiological structures share many of the biophysical characteristics associated with the pathological amyloids found in Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease. Here, we show that A-bodies are evolutionarily conserved across the eukaryotic domain, with their detection in D. melanogaster and S. cerevisiae marking the first examples of these functional amyloids being induced outside of a cultured cell setting. The conditions triggering amyloidogenesis varied significantly among the species tested, with results indicating that A-body formation is a severe, but sub-lethal, stress response pathway that is tailored to an organism's environmental norms. RNA-sequencing analyses demonstrate that the regulatory low-complexity long non-coding RNAs that drive A-body aggregation are both conserved and essential in human, mouse, and chicken cells. Thus, the identification of these natural and reversible functional amyloids in a variety of evolutionarily diverse species, highlights the physiological significance of this protein conformation and will be informative in advancing our understanding of both functional and pathological amyloid aggregation events.

GRASP55 restricts early-stage autophagy and regulates spatial organization of the early secretory network

ABSTRACT There is great interest in understanding the cellular mechanisms controlling autophagy, a tightly regulated catabolic and stress-response pathway. Prior work has uncovered links between autophagy and the Golgi reassembly stacking protein of 55 kDa (GRASP55), but their precise interrelationship remains unclear. Intriguingly, both autophagy and GRASP55 have been functionally and spatially linked to the endoplasmic reticulum (ER)­­-Golgi interface, broaching this compartment as a site where GRASP55 and autophagy may intersect. Here, we uncover that loss of GRASP55 enhances LC3 puncta formation, indicating that GRASP55 restricts autophagosome formation. Additionally, using proximity-dependent biotinylation, we identify a GRASP55 proximal interactome highly associated with the ER-Golgi interface. Both nutrient starvation and loss of GRASP55 are associated with coalescence of early secretory pathway markers. In light of these findings, we propose that GRASP55 regulates spatial organization of the ER-Golgi interface, which suppresses early autophagosome formation.

Activation of mitochondrial unfolded protein response protects against multiple exogenous stressors

The mitochondrial unfolded protein response (mitoUPR) is an evolutionarily conserved pathway that responds to mitochondria insults through transcriptional changes, mediated by the transcription factor ATFS-1/ATF-5, which acts to restore mitochondrial homeostasis. In this work, we characterized the role of ATFS-1 in responding to organismal stress. We found that activation of ATFS-1 is sufficient to cause up-regulation of genes involved in multiple stress response pathways including the DAF-16–mediated stress response pathway, the cytosolic unfolded protein response, the endoplasmic reticulum unfolded protein response, the SKN-1–mediated oxidative stress response pathway, the HIF-1-mediated hypoxia response pathway, the p38-mediated innate immune response pathway, and antioxidant genes. Constitutive activation of ATFS-1 increases resistance to multiple acute exogenous stressors, whereas disruption of atfs-1 decreases stress resistance. Although ATFS-1–dependent genes are up-regulated in multiple long-lived mutants, constitutive activation of ATFS-1 decreases lifespan in wild-type animals. Overall, our work demonstrates that ATFS-1 serves a vital role in organismal survival of acute stressors through its ability to activate multiple stress response pathways but that chronic ATFS-1 activation is detrimental for longevity.