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Li J, Qu X, Guan C, Luo N, Chen H, Li A, Zhuang H, Yang J, Diao H, Zeng S, Wang Q, Fan J, Jiang M, Bai X, Ye Z, Jiang X, Chen W, Nikolic-Paterson DJ, Yu X. Mitochondrial micropeptide MOXI promotes fibrotic gene transcription by translocation to the nucleus and bridging N-acetyltransferase 14 with transcription factor c-Jun. Kidney Int 2023; 103:886-902. [PMID: 36804379 DOI: 10.1016/j.kint.2023.01.024] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/14/2022] [Revised: 01/04/2023] [Accepted: 01/20/2023] [Indexed: 02/17/2023]
Abstract
Progressive fibrosis is a hallmark of chronic kidney disease, but we lack effective treatments to halt this destructive process. Micropeptides (peptides of no more than 100 amino acids) encoded by small open reading frames represent a new class of eukaryotic regulators. Here, we describe that the micropeptide regulator of β-oxidation (MOXI) regulates kidney fibrosis. MOXI expression was found to be up-regulated in human fibrotic kidney disease, and this correlated with the degree of fibrosis and loss of kidney function. MOXI was expressed in the cytoplasm and mitochondria of cultured tubular epithelial cells and translocated to the nucleus upon Transforming Growth Factor-β1 stimulation. Deletion of Moxi protected mice against fibrosis and inflammation in the folic acid and unilateral ureteral obstruction models. As a potential molecular therapy, treatment with an antisense MOXI oligonucleotide effectively knocked-down MOXI expression and protected against kidney fibrosis in both models. Bimolecular fluorescence complementation identified the enzyme N-acetyltransferase 14 (Nat14) and transcription factor c-Jun as MOXI binding partners. The MOXI/Nat14/c-Jun complex enhances basal and Transforming Growth Factor-β1 induced collagen I gene promoter activity. Phosphorylation at T49 is required for MOXI nuclear localization and for complex formation with Nat14 and c-Jun. Furthermore, mice with a MoxiT49A point mutation were protected in the models of kidney fibrosis. Thus, our studies demonstrate a key role for the micropeptide MOXI in kidney fibrosis and identify a new function of MOXI in forming a transcriptional complex with Nat14 and c-Jun.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jinhua Li
- The Second Clinical College, Guangdong Medical University, Dongguan, Guangdong, China; Department of Nephrology, Monash Health and Monash University Department of Medicine, Clayton, Victoria, Australia; Department of Nephrology, the First Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China; Key Laboratory of Nephrology, National Health Commission and Guangdong Province, Guangzhou, China; Department of Anatomy and Developmental Biology, Monash Biomedicine Discovery Institute, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria, Australia.
| | - Xinli Qu
- Department of Anatomy and Developmental Biology, Monash Biomedicine Discovery Institute, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria, Australia
| | - Chengnong Guan
- The Second Clinical College, Guangdong Medical University, Dongguan, Guangdong, China
| | - Ning Luo
- Department of Nephrology, the First Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China; Key Laboratory of Nephrology, National Health Commission and Guangdong Province, Guangzhou, China
| | - Huiting Chen
- The Second Clinical College, Guangdong Medical University, Dongguan, Guangdong, China
| | - Andy Li
- Department of Nephrology, Monash Health and Monash University Department of Medicine, Clayton, Victoria, Australia
| | - Hongjie Zhuang
- Department of Paediatrics, The First Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China
| | - Jiayi Yang
- Department of Nephrology, the First Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China; Key Laboratory of Nephrology, National Health Commission and Guangdong Province, Guangzhou, China
| | - Hui Diao
- Department of Nephrology, the First Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China; Key Laboratory of Nephrology, National Health Commission and Guangdong Province, Guangzhou, China
| | - Shuhan Zeng
- Department of Paediatrics, The First Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China
| | - Qing Wang
- The Second Clinical College, Guangdong Medical University, Dongguan, Guangdong, China
| | - Jinjin Fan
- Department of Nephrology, the First Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China; Key Laboratory of Nephrology, National Health Commission and Guangdong Province, Guangzhou, China
| | - Mengjie Jiang
- Department of Paediatrics, The First Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China
| | - Xiaoyan Bai
- Department of Nephrology, Guangdong Provincial People's Hospital and Guangdong Academy of Medical Sciences, Guangzhou, China; Guangdong-Hong Kong Joint Laboratory on Immunological and Genetic Kidney Diseases, Guangdong Provincial People's Hospital and Guangdong Academy of Medical Sciences, Guangzhou, China
| | - Zhiming Ye
- Department of Nephrology, Guangdong Provincial People's Hospital and Guangdong Academy of Medical Sciences, Guangzhou, China; Guangdong-Hong Kong Joint Laboratory on Immunological and Genetic Kidney Diseases, Guangdong Provincial People's Hospital and Guangdong Academy of Medical Sciences, Guangzhou, China
| | - Xiaoyun Jiang
- Department of Paediatrics, The First Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China
| | - Wei Chen
- Department of Nephrology, the First Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China; Key Laboratory of Nephrology, National Health Commission and Guangdong Province, Guangzhou, China
| | - David J Nikolic-Paterson
- Department of Nephrology, Monash Health and Monash University Department of Medicine, Clayton, Victoria, Australia
| | - Xueqing Yu
- Department of Nephrology, Guangdong Provincial People's Hospital and Guangdong Academy of Medical Sciences, Guangzhou, China; Guangdong-Hong Kong Joint Laboratory on Immunological and Genetic Kidney Diseases, Guangdong Provincial People's Hospital and Guangdong Academy of Medical Sciences, Guangzhou, China.
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Kragness S, Clark Z, Mullin A, Guidry J, Earls LR. An Rtn4/Nogo-A-interacting micropeptide modulates synaptic plasticity with age. PLoS One 2022; 17:e0269404. [PMID: 35771867 PMCID: PMC9246188 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0269404] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/06/2022] [Accepted: 05/18/2022] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Micropeptides, encoded from small open reading frames of 300 nucleotides or less, are hidden throughout mammalian genomes, though few functional studies of micropeptides in the brain are published. Here, we describe a micropeptide known as the Plasticity–Associated Neural Transcript Short (Pants), located in the 22q11.2 region of the human genome, the microdeletion of which conveys a high risk for schizophrenia. Our data show that Pants is upregulated in early adulthood in the mossy fiber circuit of the hippocampus, where it exerts a powerful negative effect on long-term potentiation (LTP). Further, we find that Pants is secreted from neurons, where it associates with synapses but is rapidly degraded with stimulation. Pants dynamically interacts with Rtn4/Nogo-A, a well-studied regulator of adult plasticity. Pants interaction with Nogo-A augments its influence over postsynaptic AMPA receptor clustering, thus gating plasticity at adult synapses. This work shows that neural micropeptides can act as architectural modules that increase the functional diversity of the known proteome.
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Affiliation(s)
- S. Kragness
- Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA, United States of America
| | - Z. Clark
- Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA, United States of America
| | - A. Mullin
- Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA, United States of America
- Tulane University Transgenic Core Facility, New Orleans, LA, United States of America
| | - J. Guidry
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, LSU School of Medicine and Health Sciences Center, New Orleans, LA, United States of America
- The Proteomics Core Facility, LSUHSC, New Orleans, LA, United States of America
| | - L. R. Earls
- Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA, United States of America
- * E-mail:
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Erady C, Amin K, Onilogbo TOAE, Tomasik J, Jukes-Jones R, Umrania Y, Bahn S, Prabakaran S. Novel open reading frames in human accelerated regions and transposable elements reveal new leads to understand schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Mol Psychiatry 2022; 27:1455-1468. [PMID: 34937870 PMCID: PMC9095477 DOI: 10.1038/s41380-021-01405-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/27/2021] [Revised: 11/16/2021] [Accepted: 11/24/2021] [Indexed: 12/13/2022]
Abstract
Schizophrenia (SCZ) and bipolar disorder are debilitating neuropsychiatric disorders arising from a combination of environmental and genetic factors. Novel open reading frames (nORFs) are genomic loci that give rise to previously uncharacterized transcripts and protein products. In our previous work, we have shown that nORFs can be biologically regulated and that they may play a role in cancer and rare diseases. More importantly, we have shown that nORFs may emerge in accelerated regions of the genome giving rise to species-specific functions. We hypothesize that nORFs represent a potentially important group of biological factors that may contribute to SCZ and bipolar disorder pathophysiology. Human accelerated regions (HARs) are genomic features showing human-lineage-specific rapid evolution that may be involved in biological regulation and have additionally been found to associate with SCZ genes. Transposable elements (TEs) are another set of genomic features that have been shown to regulate gene expression. As with HARs, their relevance to SCZ has also been suggested. Here, nORFs are investigated in the context of HARs and TEs. This work shows that nORFs whose expression is disrupted in SCZ and bipolar disorder are in close proximity to HARs and TEs and that some of them are significantly associated with SCZ and bipolar disorder genomic hotspots. We also show that nORF encoded proteins can form structures and potentially constitute novel drug targets.
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Affiliation(s)
- Chaitanya Erady
- grid.5335.00000000121885934Department of Genetics, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, CB2 3EH UK
| | - Krishna Amin
- grid.5335.00000000121885934Department of Genetics, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, CB2 3EH UK
| | - Temiloluwa O. A. E. Onilogbo
- grid.5335.00000000121885934Department of Genetics, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, CB2 3EH UK ,grid.5335.00000000121885934Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
| | - Jakub Tomasik
- grid.5335.00000000121885934Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
| | - Rebekah Jukes-Jones
- grid.9918.90000 0004 1936 8411Leicester Cancer Research Centre, RKCSB, University of Leicester, University Road, Leicester, LE1 7RH UK
| | - Yagnesh Umrania
- grid.5335.00000000121885934Cambridge Centre for Proteomics, Department of Biochemistry, University of Cambridge, Tennis Court Road, Cambridge, CB2 1QR UK
| | - Sabine Bahn
- grid.5335.00000000121885934Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
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