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Ralvenius WT, Mungenast AE, Woolf H, Huston MM, Gillingham TZ, Godin SK, Penney J, Cam HP, Gao F, Fernandez CG, Czako B, Lightfoot Y, Ray WJ, Beckmann A, Goate AM, Marcora E, Romero-Molina C, Ayata P, Schaefer A, Gjoneska E, Tsai LH. A novel molecular class that recruits HDAC/MECP2 complexes to PU.1 motifs reduces neuroinflammation. J Exp Med 2023; 220:e20222105. [PMID: 37642942 PMCID: PMC10465325 DOI: 10.1084/jem.20222105] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/08/2022] [Revised: 04/26/2023] [Accepted: 07/27/2023] [Indexed: 08/31/2023] Open
Abstract
Pervasive neuroinflammation occurs in many neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer's disease (AD). SPI1/PU.1 is a transcription factor located at a genome-wide significant AD-risk locus and its reduced expression is associated with delayed onset of AD. We analyzed single-cell transcriptomic datasets from microglia of human AD patients and found an enrichment of PU.1-binding motifs in the differentially expressed genes. In hippocampal tissues from transgenic mice with neurodegeneration, we found vastly increased genomic PU.1 binding. We then screened for PU.1 inhibitors using a PU.1 reporter cell line and discovered A11, a molecule with anti-inflammatory efficacy and nanomolar potency. A11 regulated genes putatively by recruiting a repressive complex containing MECP2, HDAC1, SIN3A, and DNMT3A to PU.1 motifs, thus representing a novel mechanism and class of molecules. In mouse models of AD, A11 ameliorated neuroinflammation, loss of neuronal integrity, AD pathology, and improved cognitive performance. This study uncovers a novel class of anti-inflammatory molecules with therapeutic potential for neurodegenerative disorders.
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Affiliation(s)
- William T. Ralvenius
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Picower Institute for Learning and Memory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Alison E. Mungenast
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Picower Institute for Learning and Memory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Hannah Woolf
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Picower Institute for Learning and Memory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Margaret M. Huston
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Picower Institute for Learning and Memory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Tyler Z. Gillingham
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Picower Institute for Learning and Memory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Stephen K. Godin
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Picower Institute for Learning and Memory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Jay Penney
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Picower Institute for Learning and Memory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Hugh P. Cam
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Picower Institute for Learning and Memory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Fan Gao
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Picower Institute for Learning and Memory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Celia G. Fernandez
- The Neurodegeneration Consortium, Therapeutics Discovery Division, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, USA
| | - Barbara Czako
- The Neurodegeneration Consortium, Therapeutics Discovery Division, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, USA
| | - Yaima Lightfoot
- The Neurodegeneration Consortium, Therapeutics Discovery Division, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, USA
| | - William J. Ray
- The Neurodegeneration Consortium, Therapeutics Discovery Division, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, USA
| | - Adrian Beckmann
- The Neurodegeneration Consortium, Therapeutics Discovery Division, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, USA
| | - Alison M. Goate
- Nash Family Department of Neuroscience, Friedman Brain Institute, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA
- Ronald M. Loeb Center for Alzheimer’s Disease, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA
- Department of Genetics and Genomic Sciences, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA
| | - Edoardo Marcora
- Nash Family Department of Neuroscience, Friedman Brain Institute, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA
- Ronald M. Loeb Center for Alzheimer’s Disease, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA
- Department of Genetics and Genomic Sciences, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA
| | - Carmen Romero-Molina
- Nash Family Department of Neuroscience, Friedman Brain Institute, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA
- Ronald M. Loeb Center for Alzheimer’s Disease, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA
- Department of Genetics and Genomic Sciences, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA
| | - Pinar Ayata
- Nash Family Department of Neuroscience, Friedman Brain Institute, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA
- Ronald M. Loeb Center for Alzheimer’s Disease, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA
- Advanced Science Research Center at the Graduate Center, Neuroscience Initiative, City University of New York, New York, NY, USA
| | - Anne Schaefer
- Nash Family Department of Neuroscience, Friedman Brain Institute, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA
- Ronald M. Loeb Center for Alzheimer’s Disease, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA
- Max Planck Institute for Biology of Ageing, Cologne, Germany
| | - Elizabeta Gjoneska
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Picower Institute for Learning and Memory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
- Neurobiology Laboratory, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, National Institutes of Health, Research Triangle Park, Durham, NC, USA
| | - Li-Huei Tsai
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Picower Institute for Learning and Memory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
- Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA
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Wangler MF, Chao YH, Bayat V, Giagtzoglou N, Shinde AB, Putluri N, Coarfa C, Donti T, Graham BH, Faust JE, McNew JA, Moser A, Sardiello M, Baes M, Bellen HJ. Peroxisomal biogenesis is genetically and biochemically linked to carbohydrate metabolism in Drosophila and mouse. PLoS Genet 2017; 13:e1006825. [PMID: 28640802 PMCID: PMC5480855 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1006825] [Citation(s) in RCA: 23] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/09/2017] [Accepted: 05/16/2017] [Indexed: 01/07/2023] Open
Abstract
Peroxisome biogenesis disorders (PBD) are a group of multi-system human diseases due to mutations in the PEX genes that are responsible for peroxisome assembly and function. These disorders lead to global defects in peroxisomal function and result in severe brain, liver, bone and kidney disease. In order to study their pathogenesis we undertook a systematic genetic and biochemical study of Drosophila pex16 and pex2 mutants. These mutants are short-lived with defects in locomotion and activity. Moreover these mutants exhibit severe morphologic and functional peroxisomal defects. Using metabolomics we uncovered defects in multiple biochemical pathways including defects outside the canonical specialized lipid pathways performed by peroxisomal enzymes. These included unanticipated changes in metabolites in glycolysis, glycogen metabolism, and the pentose phosphate pathway, carbohydrate metabolic pathways that do not utilize known peroxisomal enzymes. In addition, mutant flies are starvation sensitive and are very sensitive to glucose deprivation exhibiting dramatic shortening of lifespan and hyperactivity on low-sugar food. We use bioinformatic transcriptional profiling to examine gene co-regulation between peroxisomal genes and other metabolic pathways and we observe that the expression of peroxisomal and carbohydrate pathway genes in flies and mouse are tightly correlated. Indeed key steps in carbohydrate metabolism were found to be strongly co-regulated with peroxisomal genes in flies and mice. Moreover mice lacking peroxisomes exhibit defective carbohydrate metabolism at the same key steps in carbohydrate breakdown. Our data indicate an unexpected link between these two metabolic processes and suggest metabolism of carbohydrates could be a new therapeutic target for patients with PBD.
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Affiliation(s)
- Michael F. Wangler
- Department of Molecular and Human Genetics, Baylor College of Medicine (BCM), Houston, TX, United States of America
- Texas Children’s Hospital, Houston TX, United States of America
- Program in Developmental Biology, BCM, Houston, TX, United States of America
- Jan and Dan Duncan Neurological Research Institute, Texas Children’s Hospital (TCH), Houston, TX, United States of America
| | - Yu-Hsin Chao
- Department of Molecular and Human Genetics, Baylor College of Medicine (BCM), Houston, TX, United States of America
| | - Vafa Bayat
- Program in Developmental Biology, BCM, Houston, TX, United States of America
| | - Nikolaos Giagtzoglou
- Department of Molecular and Human Genetics, Baylor College of Medicine (BCM), Houston, TX, United States of America
| | - Abhijit Babaji Shinde
- KU Leuven, Laboratory of Cell Metabolism, Department of Pharmaceutical and Pharmacological Sciences, Leuven, Belgium
| | - Nagireddy Putluri
- Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, BCM, Houston, TX, United States of America
| | - Cristian Coarfa
- Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, BCM, Houston, TX, United States of America
| | - Taraka Donti
- Department of Molecular and Human Genetics, Baylor College of Medicine (BCM), Houston, TX, United States of America
| | - Brett H. Graham
- Department of Molecular and Human Genetics, Baylor College of Medicine (BCM), Houston, TX, United States of America
| | - Joseph E. Faust
- Department of BioSciences, Rice University, Houston TX, United States of America
| | - James A. McNew
- Department of BioSciences, Rice University, Houston TX, United States of America
| | - Ann Moser
- Kennedy Krieger Institute, Baltimore MD, United States of America
| | - Marco Sardiello
- Department of Molecular and Human Genetics, Baylor College of Medicine (BCM), Houston, TX, United States of America
- Program in Developmental Biology, BCM, Houston, TX, United States of America
- Jan and Dan Duncan Neurological Research Institute, Texas Children’s Hospital (TCH), Houston, TX, United States of America
| | - Myriam Baes
- KU Leuven, Laboratory of Cell Metabolism, Department of Pharmaceutical and Pharmacological Sciences, Leuven, Belgium
| | - Hugo J. Bellen
- Department of Molecular and Human Genetics, Baylor College of Medicine (BCM), Houston, TX, United States of America
- Texas Children’s Hospital, Houston TX, United States of America
- Program in Developmental Biology, BCM, Houston, TX, United States of America
- Jan and Dan Duncan Neurological Research Institute, Texas Children’s Hospital (TCH), Houston, TX, United States of America
- Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Houston, TX, United States of America
- Department of Neuroscience, BCM, Houston, TX, United States of America
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Wangler MF, Hu Y, Shulman JM. Drosophila and genome-wide association studies: a review and resource for the functional dissection of human complex traits. Dis Model Mech 2017; 10:77-88. [PMID: 28151408 PMCID: PMC5312009 DOI: 10.1242/dmm.027680] [Citation(s) in RCA: 33] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/01/2023] Open
Abstract
Human genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have successfully identified thousands of susceptibility loci for common diseases with complex genetic etiologies. Although the susceptibility variants identified by GWAS usually have only modest effects on individual disease risk, they contribute to a substantial burden of trait variation in the overall population. GWAS also offer valuable clues to disease mechanisms that have long proven to be elusive. These insights could lead the way to breakthrough treatments; however, several challenges hinder progress, making innovative approaches to accelerate the follow-up of results from GWAS an urgent priority. Here, we discuss the largely untapped potential of the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, for functional investigation of findings from human GWAS. We highlight selected examples where strong genomic conservation with humans along with the rapid and powerful genetic tools available for flies have already facilitated fine mapping of association signals, elucidated gene mechanisms, and revealed novel disease-relevant biology. We emphasize current research opportunities in this rapidly advancing field, and present bioinformatic analyses that systematically explore the applicability of Drosophila for interrogation of susceptibility signals implicated in more than 1000 human traits, based on all GWAS completed to date. Thus, our discussion is targeted at both human geneticists seeking innovative strategies for experimental validation of findings from GWAS, as well as the Drosophila research community, by whom ongoing investigations of the implicated genes will powerfully inform our understanding of human disease.
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Affiliation(s)
- Michael F Wangler
- Department of Molecular and Human Genetics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX 77030, USA
- Jan and Dan Duncan Neurological Research Institute, Texas Children's Hospital, Houston, TX 77030, USA
- Program in Developmental Biology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX 77030, USA
| | - Yanhui Hu
- Department of Genetics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA
| | - Joshua M Shulman
- Department of Molecular and Human Genetics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX 77030, USA
- Jan and Dan Duncan Neurological Research Institute, Texas Children's Hospital, Houston, TX 77030, USA
- Program in Developmental Biology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX 77030, USA
- Department of Neurology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX 77030, USA
- Department of Neuroscience, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX 77030, USA
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Chen K, Ho TSY, Lin G, Tan KL, Rasband MN, Bellen HJ. Loss of Frataxin activates the iron/sphingolipid/PDK1/Mef2 pathway in mammals. eLife 2016; 5:e20732. [PMID: 27901468 PMCID: PMC5130293 DOI: 10.7554/elife.20732] [Citation(s) in RCA: 44] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/22/2016] [Accepted: 11/17/2016] [Indexed: 01/05/2023] Open
Abstract
Friedreich's ataxia (FRDA) is an autosomal recessive neurodegenerative disease caused by mutations in Frataxin (FXN). Loss of FXN causes impaired mitochondrial function and iron homeostasis. An elevated production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) was previously proposed to contribute to the pathogenesis of FRDA. We recently showed that loss of frataxin homolog (fh), a Drosophila homolog of FXN, causes a ROS independent neurodegeneration in flies (Chen et al., 2016). In fh mutants, iron accumulation in the nervous system enhances the synthesis of sphingolipids, which in turn activates 3-phosphoinositide dependent protein kinase-1 (Pdk1) and myocyte enhancer factor-2 (Mef2) to trigger neurodegeneration of adult photoreceptors. Here, we show that loss of Fxn in the nervous system in mice also activates an iron/sphingolipid/PDK1/Mef2 pathway, indicating that the mechanism is evolutionarily conserved. Furthermore, sphingolipid levels and PDK1 activity are also increased in hearts of FRDA patients, suggesting that a similar pathway is affected in FRDA.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kuchuan Chen
- Program in Developmental Biology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, United States
| | - Tammy Szu-Yu Ho
- Department of Neuroscience, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, United States
| | - Guang Lin
- Department of Molecular and Human Genetics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, United States
| | - Kai Li Tan
- Program in Developmental Biology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, United States
| | - Matthew N Rasband
- Program in Developmental Biology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, United States
- Department of Neuroscience, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, United States
| | - Hugo J Bellen
- Program in Developmental Biology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, United States
- Department of Neuroscience, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, United States
- Department of Molecular and Human Genetics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, United States
- Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, United States
- Jan and Dan Duncan Neurological Research Institute, Houston, United States
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