Preconditioning of microglia by α-synuclein strongly affects the response induced by toll-like receptor (TLR) stimulation.

In recent years, it has become accepted that α-synuclein (αSyn) has a key role in the microglia-mediated neuroinflammation, which accompanies the development of Parkinson's disease and other related disorders, such as Dementia with Lewy Bodies and Alzheimer's disease. Nevertheless, the cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying its pathological actions, especially in the sporadic forms of the diseases, are not completely understood. Intriguingly, several epidemiological and animal model studies have revealed a link between certain microbial infections and the onset or progression of sporadic forms of these neurodegenerative disorders. In this work, we have characterized the effect of toll-like receptor (TLR) stimulation on primary murine microglial cultures and analysed the impact of priming cells with extracellular wild-type (Wt) αSyn on the subsequent TLR stimulation of cells with a set of TLR ligands. By assaying key interleukins and chemokines we report that specific stimuli, in particular Pam3Csk4 (Pam3) and single-stranded RNA40 (ssRNA), can differentially affect the TLR2/1- and TLR7-mediated responses of microglia when pre-conditioned with αSyn by augmenting IL-6, MCP-1/CCL2 or IP-10/CXCL10 secretion levels. Furthermore, we report a skewing of αSyn-primed microglia stimulated with ssRNA (TLR7) or Pam3 (TLR2/1) towards intermediate but at the same time differential, M1/M2 phenotypes. Finally, we show that the levels and intracellular location of activated caspase-3 protein change significantly in αSyn-primed microglia after stimulation with these particular TLR agonists. Overall, we report a remarkable impact of non-aggregated αSyn pre-sensitization of microglia on TLR-mediated immunity, a phenomenon that could contribute to triggering the onset of sporadic α-synuclein-related neuropathologies.

Myeloma cells contain high levels of inorganic polyphosphate which is associated with nucleolar transcription.

BACKGROUND: In hematology there has recently been increasing interest in inorganic polyphosphate. This polymer accumulates in platelet granules and its functions include modulating various stages of blood coagulation, inducing angiogenesis, and provoking apoptosis of plasma cells. In this study we evaluated the characteristics of intracellular polyphosphate in myeloma cell lines, in primary myeloma cells from patients, and in other human B-cell populations from healthy donors. DESIGN AND METHODS: We have developed a novel flow cytometric method for detecting levels of polyphosphate in cell populations. We also used confocal microscopy and enzymatic analysis to study polyphosphate localization and characteristics. RESULTS: We found that myeloma plasma cells contain higher levels of intracellular polyphosphate than normal plasma cells and other B-cell populations. Localization experiments indicated that high levels of polyphosphate accumulate in the nucleolus of myeloma cells. As the principal function of the nucleolus involves transcription of ribosomal DNA genes, we found changes in the cellular distribution of polyphosphate after the inhibition of nucleolar transcription. In addition, we found that RNA polymerase I activity, responsible for transcription in the nucleolus, is also modulated by polyphosphate, in a dose-dependent manner. CONCLUSIONS: Our results show an unusually high accumulation of polyphosphate in the nucleoli of myeloma cells and a functional relationship of this polymer with nucleolar transcription.

Low-density lipoprotein cholesterol suppresses apoptosis in human multiple myeloma cells.

Multiple myeloma (MM) is an incurable disease accompanied by low plasma levels of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-c). The significance of altered cholesterol metabolism in the pathophysiology of MM remains elusive. Although it has been hypothesized that myeloma cells depend on exogenous cholesterol for its survival, the role of LDL-c on myeloma cells has not been elucidated. To evaluate the impact of exogenous LDL-c on cell viability, three human myeloma cell lines (RPMI-8226, NCI-H929, and U-266B1) were grown in the presence or absence of lipoproteins. Cell viability was markedly reduced in the absence of lipoproteins in sera. However, exogenous LDL-c improved cell viability. We showed that reduced cell viability was associated with increased levels of cleaved caspase-3, whereas proliferation rate remained unchanged. Interestingly, exogenous LDL-c counteracted apoptosis in human myeloma cell lines and primary cultures of human myeloma cells. Thus, our results demonstrated that LDL-c is an important anti-apoptotic factor for myeloma cells and begin to explain the hypocholesterolemia observed in patients with MM.

NOA36/ZNF330 is a conserved cystein-rich protein with proapoptotic activity in human cells.

Translocations of regulator proteins from or to the mitochondria are key events in apoptosis regulation. NOA36/ZNF330 is a highly evolutionary conserved protein with a characteristic cystein-rich domain. In this work we address its mitochondrial localization and we demonstrate that a blockage of endogenous NOA36/ZNF330 expression by small-interfering RNA (siRNA) reduced apoptotic response to etoposide (ETO), camptothecin (CPT) and staurosporine (STS) but not to CH11 anti-Fas antibody or tumour-necrosis-factor-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL) in HeLa cells. In contrast, when ectopically expressed in the cytoplasm, NOA36/ZNF330 induces apoptotic cell death. We also found that the domain responsible for this proapoptotic activity is located its cystein-rich region. We propose that NOA36/ZNF330 is translocated from the mitochondria to the cytoplasm when apoptosis is induced and that it contributes to cytochrome c release.