Effect of ubiquitin expression on neuropathogenesis in a mouse model of familial amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

Aging-accelerated differential production and aggregation of STAT3 protein in neuronal cells and neural stem cells in the male mouse spinal cord

Aging-affected cellular compositions of the spinal cord are diverse and region specific. Age leads to the accumulation of abnormal protein aggregates and dysregulation of proteostasis. Dysregulated proteostasis and protein aggregates result from dysfunction of the ubiquitin-proteasome system (UPS) and autophagy. Understanding the molecular mechanisms of spinal cord aging is essential and important for scientists to discover new therapies for rejuvenation. We found age-related increases in STAT3 and decreases in Tuj1 in aging mouse spinal cords, which was characterized by increased expression of P16. Coaggregation of lysine-48 and lysine-63 ubiquitin with STAT3 was revealed in aging mouse spinal cords. STAT3-ubiquitin aggregates formed via lysine-48 and lysine-63 linkages were increased significantly in the aging spinal cords but not in central canal ependymal cells or neural stem cells in the spinal cord. These results highlight the increase in STAT3 and its region-specific aggregation and ubiquitin-conjugation during spinal cord aging.

Ubiquitin turnover and endocytic trafficking in yeast are regulated by Ser57 phosphorylation of ubiquitin

Despite its central role in protein degradation little is known about the molecular mechanisms that sense, maintain, and regulate steady state concentration of ubiquitin in the cell. Here, we describe a novel mechanism for regulation of ubiquitin homeostasis that is mediated by phosphorylation of ubiquitin at the Ser57 position. We find that loss of Ppz phosphatase activity leads to defects in ubiquitin homeostasis that are at least partially attributable to elevated levels of Ser57 phosphorylated ubiquitin. Phosphomimetic mutation at the Ser57 position of ubiquitin conferred increased rates of endocytic trafficking and ubiquitin turnover. These phenotypes are associated with bypass of recognition by endosome-localized deubiquitylases - including Doa4 which is critical for regulation of ubiquitin recycling. Thus, ubiquitin homeostasis is significantly impacted by the rate of ubiquitin flux through the endocytic pathway and by signaling pathways that converge on ubiquitin itself to determine whether it is recycled or degraded in the vacuole.

Characterization of the Contribution of Genetic Background and Gender to Disease Progression in the SOD1 G93A Mouse Model of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis: A Meta-Analysis

Background: The SOD1 G93A mouse model of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is the most frequently used model to examine ALS pathophysiology. There is a lack of homogeneity in usage of the SOD1 G93A mouse, including differences in genetic background and gender, which could confound the field’s results.

Objective: In an analysis of 97 studies, we characterized the ALS progression for the high transgene copy control SOD1 G93A mouse on the basis of disease onset, overall lifespan, and disease duration for male and female mice on the B6SJL and C57BL/6J genetic backgrounds and quantified magnitudes of differences between groups.

Methods: Mean age at onset, onset assessment measure, disease duration, and overall lifespan data from each study were extracted and statistically modeled as the response of linear regression with the sex and genetic background factored as predictors. Additional examination was performed on differing experimental onset and endpoint assessment measures.

Results: C57BL/6 background mice show delayed onset of symptoms, increased lifespan, and an extended disease duration compared to their sex-matched B6SJL counterparts. Female B6SJL generally experience extended lifespan and delayed onset compared to their male counterparts, while female mice on the C57BL/6 background show delayed onset but no difference in survival compared to their male counterparts. Finally, different experimental protocols (tremor, rotarod, etc.) for onset determination result in notably different onset means.

Conclusions: Overall, the observed effect of sex on disease endpoints was smaller than that which can be attributed to the genetic background. The often-reported increase in lifespan for female mice was observed only for mice on the B6SJL background, implicating a strain-dependent effect of sex on disease progression that manifests despite identical mutant SOD1 expression.

Trafficking-deficient mutant GABRG2 subunit amount may modify epilepsy phenotype

OBJECTIVE

Genetic epilepsies and many other human genetic diseases display phenotypic heterogeneity, often for unknown reasons. Disease severity associated with nonsense mutations is dependent partially on mutation gene location and resulting efficiency of nonsense-mediated mRNA decay (NMD) to eliminate potentially toxic proteins. Nonsense mutations in the last exon do not activate NMD, thus producing truncated proteins. We compared the protein metabolism and the impact on channel biogenesis, function, and cellular homeostasis of truncated γ2 subunits produced by GABRG2 nonsense mutations associated with epilepsy of different severities and by a nonsense mutation in the last exon unassociated with epilepsy.

METHODS

γ-Aminobutyric acid type A receptor subunits were coexpressed in non-neuronal cells and neurons. NMD was studied using minigenes that support NMD. Protein degradation rates were determined using (35) S radiolabeling pulse chase. Channel function was determined by whole cell recordings, and subunits trafficking and cellular toxicity were determined using flow cytometry, immunoblotting, and immunohistochemistry.

RESULTS

Although all GABRG2 nonsense mutations resulted in loss of γ2 subunit surface expression, the truncated subunits had different degradation rates and stabilities, suppression of wild-type subunit biogenesis and function, amounts of conjugation with polyubiquitin, and endoplasmic reticulum stress levels.

INTERPRETATION

We compared molecular phenotypes of GABRG2 nonsense mutations. The findings suggest that despite the common loss of mutant allele function, each mutation produced different intracellular levels of trafficking-deficient subunits. The concentration-dependent suppression of wild-type channel function and cellular disturbance resulting from differences in mutant subunit metabolism may contribute to associated epilepsy severities and by implication to phenotypic heterogeneity in many inherited human diseases.

Up-regulation of endoplasmic reticulum stress-related genes during the early phase of treatment of cultured cortical neurons by the proteasomal inhibitor lactacystin

Inhibition of proteasome degradation pathway has been implicated in neuronal cell death leading to neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's disease. We and others demonstrated that treatment of cortical neurons with the proteasomal inhibitor lactacystin leads to apoptosis. We discovered by microarray analysis that lactacystin treatment modulates the expression of both potentially neuroprotective as well as pro-apoptotic genes in neurons. However, the significance of the genes which upon transcriptional modulation contributed to proteasomal inhibition-induced apoptosis, remained unidentified. By employing microarray analysis to decipher the time-dependent changes in transcription of these genes in cultured cortical neurons, we discovered different groups of genes were transcriptionally regulated in the early and late phase of lactacystin-induced cell death. In the early phase, several neuroprotective genes such as those encoding the proteasome subunits and ubiquitin-associated enzymes, as well as the heat-shock proteins (HSP) were up-regulated. However, the pro-apoptotic endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress-associated genes were also up-regulated at the early phase of lactacystin-induced neuronal cell death. In the late phase, genes encoding antioxidants and calcium-binding proteins were up-regulated while those associated with cholesterol biosynthesis were down-regulated. The data suggest that ER stress may participate in mediating the apoptotic responses induced by proteasomal inhibition. The up-regulation of the neuroprotective antioxidant genes and calcium-binding protein genes and down-regulation of the cholesterol biosynthesis genes in the later phase are likely consequences of stimulation of the pro-apoptotic signaling pathways in the early phase of lactacystin treatment.

Down-regulating protein kinase C alpha: functional cooperation between the proteasome and the endocytic system

Ubiquitination, proteasome, caveolae and endosomes have been implicated in controlling protein kinase C alpha (PKC alpha) down-regulation. However, the molecular mechanism remained obscure. Here we show that endosomes and proteasome cooperate in phorbol ester 12-O-tetradecanoyl phorbol acetate (TPA)-induced down-regulation of PKC alpha. We show that following TPA treatment and translocation to the plasma membrane, PKC alpha undergoes multimonoubiquitination prior to its degradation by the proteasome. However, to reach the proteasome, PKC alpha must travel through the endocytic system from early to late endosomes. This route requires functional endosomes, whereby endosomal alkalinization, or ablation, abrogates completely PKC alpha degradation maintaining the enzyme at the plasma membrane. This route also depends on synaptotagmin (Syt) II and the Rab7 GTPase, whereby Syt II knock-down or expression of the GDP-locked Rab7 inactive mutant prevents PKC alpha degradation. We further show that proteasome plays a dual role, where an active proteasome is required for deubiquitination of PKC alpha, a step crucial to prevent PKC alpha targeting to the endocytic recycling compartment. Finally, we show that the association with rafts-localized cell surface proteins that internalize in a clathrin-independent fashion is necessary to allow the trafficking of PKC alpha from the plasma membrane to the proteasome, its ultimate degradation station.

Long-term proteasome dysfunction in the mouse brain by expression of aberrant ubiquitin

Many neurodegenerative diseases are characterized by deposits of ubiquitinated and aberrant proteins, suggesting a failure of the ubiquitin-proteasome system (UPS). The aberrant ubiquitin UBB(+1) is one of the ubiquitinated proteins accumulating in tauopathies such as Alzheimer's disease (AD) and polyglutamine diseases such as Huntington's disease. We have generated UBB(+1) transgenic mouse lines with post-natal neuronal expression of UBB(+1), resulting in increased levels of ubiquitinated proteins in the cortex. Moreover, by proteomic analysis, we identified expression changes in proteins involved in energy metabolism or organization of the cytoskeleton. These changes show a striking resemblance to the proteomic profiles of both AD brain and several AD mouse models. Moreover, UBB(+1) transgenic mice show a deficit in contextual memory in both water maze and fear conditioning paradigms. Although UBB(+1) partially inhibits the UPS in the cortex, these mice do not have an overt neurological phenotype. These mouse models do not replicate the full spectrum of AD-related changes, yet provide a tool to understand how the UPS is involved in AD pathological changes and in memory formation.

Differential effects of Usp14 and Uch-L1 on the ubiquitin proteasome system and synaptic activity

The ubiquitin proteasome pathway has been implicated in the pathogenesis of many neurodegenerative diseases, and alterations in two different deubiquitinating enzymes, Uch-L1 and Usp14, result in neurological phenotypes in mice. We identified a new mutation in Uch-L1 and compared the roles of Uch-L1 and Usp14 in the ubiquitin proteasome system. Deficiencies in either Uch-L1 or Usp14 result in decreased levels of ubiquitin, suggesting that they both regulate ubiquitin stability in the nervous system. However, the effect of ubiquitin depletion on viability and onset of symptoms is more severe in the Usp14-deficient mice, and changes in hippocampal synaptic transmission were only observed in Usp14-deficient mice. In addition, while Usp14 appears to function at the proteasome, Uch-L1 deficiency resulted in up-regulation of lysosomal components, indicating that Uch-L1 and Usp14 may differentially affect the ubiquitin proteasome system and synaptic activity by regulating different pools of ubiquitin in the cell.

Insoluble mutant SOD1 is partly oligoubiquitinated in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis mice

Mutations in the Cu,Zn-superoxide dismutase (SOD1) gene cause a familial form of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) through an unknown gain-of-function mechanism. Mutant SOD1 aggregation may be the toxic property. In fact, proteinaceous inclusions rich in mutant SOD1 have been found in tissues from the familial form of ALS patients and in mutant SOD1 animals, before disease onset. However, very little is known of the constituents and mechanism of formation of aggregates in ALS. We and others have shown that there is a progressive accumulation of detergent-insoluble mutant SOD1 in the spinal cord of G93A SOD1 mice. To investigate the mechanism of SOD1 aggregation, we characterized by proteome technologies SOD1 isoforms in a Triton X-100-insoluble fraction of spinal cord from G93A SOD1 mice at different stages of the disease. This showed that at symptomatic stages of the disease, part of the insoluble SOD1 is unambiguously mono- and oligoubiquitinated, in spinal cord and not in hippocampus, and that ubiquitin branches at Lys(48), the major signal for proteasome degradation. At presymptomatic stages of the disease, only insoluble unmodified SOD1 is recovered. Partial ubiquitination of SOD1-rich inclusions was also confirmed by immunohistochemical and electron microscopy analysis of lumbar spinal cord sections from symptomatic G93A SOD1 mice. On the basis of these results, we propose that ubiquitination occurs only after SOD1 aggregation and that oligoubiquitination may underline alternative mechanisms in disease pathogenesis.

Delayed spinocerebellar ataxia in transgenic mice expressing mutant ubiquitin

Spinocerebellar ataxia type 1 (SCA1) is an incurable neurodegenerative disease resulting from loss of Purkinje neurones within the cerebellum. The ubiquitin proteasome pathway (UPP) has been implicated in SCA1 but the role of proteolysis in the disease is still poorly understood. To further investigate this issue in vivo, genetic crosses were performed between an established mouse model of SCA1 and novel strains expressing elevated levels of wild type or mutant isoforms of ubiquitin. The K48R mutant isoform of ubiquitin (a dominant negative inhibitor of proteolysis) was found to significantly delay the deterioration of Purkinje neurones as evidenced by behavioural, morphological, and molecular indicators. This delay was accompanied by stabilization of p300/CBP, transcriptional mediators whose abundance and activity would otherwise decline in the course of the SCA1 disease, and persistence of protein kinase C gamma (PKCgamma), a protein involved in Purkinje cell dendritic development that is mutated in one form of spinocerebellar ataxia. Whereas the stabilization of p300/CBP was found to occur at the post-translational level the modulation of PKCgamma was at the level of transcription. These results are consistent with transcriptional dysregulation as a key mechanism in neurodegeneration through loss of p300/CBP. Further, the results suggest that the UPP is a potentially useful target for the development of novel therapies for the treatment of neurodegenerative disease.

Chemical and genetic strategies for manipulating polyubiquitin chain structure

Ubiquitin can be conjugated to lysine residues of other ubiquitin molecules to form polymers called polyubiquitin chains. Ubiquitin has seven lysine residues, creating the potential for seven distinct types of chains, at least five of which have been observed in vitro or in vivo. A subset of these chains mediates substrate targeting to proteasomes, whereas other types of chains have been implicated in nonproteolytic signaling pathways. In this chapter, we outline chemical and genetic strategies that can be used to deduce (or control) the structures of polyubiquitin chains in vitro and in living cells.