Infection by ME7 prion is not modified in transgenic mice expressing the yeast chaperone Hsp104 in neurons.

The Hsp104 chaperone induces thermo-tolerance in yeast and rescues proteins trapped in aggregates. In this study, we showed that xenogenic expression of Hsp104 dramatically increased the viability of the neuronal mouse CAD cell line after exposure to heat shock. These results indicate that the Hsp104 protein confers thermo-resistance to mammalian neuronal cells, the canonical property of Hsp104 in yeast. Hsp104 also determines the prion state of prion-like proteins in yeast and to investigate whether Hsp104 expression may modify mammalian prion infection in vivo, transgenic mice with specific expression of Hsp104 in neurons were generated. Mice develop and reproduce normally, they show no detectable physical defect and may constitute valuable model for the study of aggregation-prone neuropathological disorders. Hsp104 transgenic and control littermates were infected intracerebrally with the ME7 strain of scrapie. No differences in the incubation time of the disease or in PrP(Sc) accumulation were observed between transgenic and control mice. These results suggest that the heat-shock protein Hsp104 is not efficient to modulate the multiplication of mammalian prions and/or to counteract neurodegeneration in the brain of scrapie-infected mice.

Proteasome inhibitors promote the sequestration of PrPSc into aggresomes within the cytosol of prion-infected CAD neuronal cells.

Dysfunction of the endoplasmic reticulum associated protein degradation/proteasome system is believed to contribute to the initiation or aggravation of neurodegenerative disorders associated with protein misfolding, and there is some evidence to suggest that proteasome dysfunctions might be implicated in prion disease. This study investigated the effect of proteasome inhibitors on the biogenesis of both the cellular (PrP(C)) and abnormal (PrP(Sc)) forms of prion protein in CAD neuronal cells, a newly introduced prion cell system. In uninfected cells, proteasome impairment altered the intracellular distribution of PrP(C), leading to a strong accumulation in the Golgi apparatus. Moreover, a detergent-insoluble and weakly protease-resistant PrP species of 26 kDa, termed PrP(26K), accumulated in the cells, whether they were prion-infected or not. However, no evidence was found that, in infected cells, this PrP(26K) species converts into the highly proteinase K-resistant PrP(Sc). In the infected cultures, proteasome inhibition caused an increased intracellular aggregation of PrP(Sc) that was deposited into large aggresomes. These findings strengthen the view that, in neuronal cells expressing wild-type PrP(C) from the natural promoter, proteasomal impairment may affect both the process of PrP(C) biosynthesis and the subcellular sites of PrP(Sc) accumulation, despite the fact that these two effects could essentially be disconnected.

SCRG1, a potential marker of autophagy in transmissible spongiform encephalopathies.

The Scrg1 gene was initially discovered as one of the genes upregulated in transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSE). Scrg1 encodes a highly conserved, cysteine-rich protein expressed principally in the central nervous system. The protein is targeted to the Golgi apparatus and large dense-core vesicles/secretory granules in neurons. We have recently shown that the Scrg1 protein is widely induced in neurons of scrapie-infected mice, suggesting that Scrg1 is involved in the host response to stress and/or the death of neurons. At the ultrastructural level, Scrg1 is associated with dictyosomes of the Golgi apparatus and autophagic vacuoles of degenerative neurons. It is well known that apoptosis plays a major role in the events leading to neuronal cell death in TSE. However, autophagy was identified in experimentally induced scrapie a long time ago and was recently reevaluated as a possible cell death program in prion diseases. The consistent association of Scrg1 with autophagic structures typical of scrapie is in agreement with the recruitment of Golgi-specific proteins in this degradation process and we suggest that Scrg1 might be used as a specific probe to identify neuronal autophagy in TSE.

Scrg1 is induced in TSE and brain injuries, and associated with autophagy.

We have previously identified Scrg1, a gene with increased cerebral mRNA levels in transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSE) such as scrapie, bovine spongiform encephalopathy and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. In this study, Scrg1-immunoreactive cells, essentially neurons, were shown to be widely distributed throughout the brain of scrapie-infected mice, while only rare and weakly immunoreactive cells could be detected in the brain of non-infected normal mice. Induction of the protein was confirmed by Western blot analysis. At the ultrastructural level, Scrg1 protein was associated with dictyosomes of the Golgi apparatus and autophagic vacuoles in the central neurons of the scrapie-infected mice. These results suggested a role for Scrg1 in the pathological changes observed in TSE. We have generated transgenic mice specifically expressing Scrg1 in neurons. No significant differences in the time course of the disease were detected between transgenic and non-transgenic mice infected with scrapie prions. However, tight association of Scrg1 with autophagic vacuoles was again observed in brain neurons of infected transgenic mice. High levels of the protein were also detected in degenerating Purkinje cells of Ngsk Prnp 0/0 mice overexpressing the Prnd gene coding for doppel, a neurotoxic paralogue of the prion protein. Furthermore, induction of Scrg1 protein was observed in the brain of mice injured by canine distemper virus or gold thioglucose treatment. Taken together, our results indicate that Scrg1 is associated with neurodegenerative processes in TSE, but is not directly linked to dysregulation of prion protein.

Scrg1, a novel protein of the CNS is targeted to the large dense-core vesicles in neuronal cells.

Scrapie responsive gene one (Scrg1) is a novel transcript discovered through identification of the genes associated with or responsible for the neurodegenerative changes observed in transmissible spongiform encephalopathies. Scrg1 mRNA is distributed principally in the central nervous system and the cDNA sequence predicts a small cysteine-rich protein 98 amino acids in length, with a N-terminal signal peptide. In this study, we have generated antibodies against the predicted protein and revealed expression of a predominant immunoreactive protein of 10 kDa in mouse brain by Western blot analysis. We have established CAD neuronal cell lines stably expressing Scrg1 to determine its subcellular localization. Several lines of evidence show that the protein is targeted to dense-core vesicles in these cells. (i) Scrg1 is detected by immunocytochemistry as very punctate signals especially in the Golgi apparatus and tips of neurites, suggesting a vesicular localization for the protein. Moreover, Scrg1 exhibits a high degree of colocalization with secretogranin II, a dense-core vesicle marker and a very limited colocalization with markers for small synaptic vesicles. (ii) Scrg1 immunoreactivity is associated with large secretory granules/dense-core vesicles, as indicated by immuno-electron microscopy. (iii) Scrg1 is enriched in fractions of sucrose density gradient where synaptotagmin V, a dense-core vesicle-associated protein, is also enriched. The characteristic punctate immunostaining of Scrg1 is observed in N2A cells transfected with Scrg1 and for the endogenous protein in cultured primary neurons, attesting to the generality of the observations. Our findings strongly suggest that Scrg1 is associated with the secretory pathway of neuronal cells.

Molecular cloning of ADIR, a novel interferon responsive gene encoding a protein related to the torsins.

The expression of the previously uncharacterized gene Adir (for ATP dependent interferon responsive gene) was increased by 5- to 15-fold in tissue of the oral cavity or in spleen and liver of mice treated orally or intraperitoneally with IFN-alpha, and in mouse cells treated in vitro with IFN-alpha or IFN-gamma. The level of Adir mRNA was also increased 20- to 40-fold in the brains of animals infected with encephalomyocarditis virus. Adir is expressed ubiquitously in mouse tissues as 1.9-, 2.4-, and 3.5-kb mRNA transcripts encoding a 385-amino-acid protein with a conserved ATP binding domain containing typical nucleotide and Mg(2+) binding sites. We also characterized the human ortholog, ADIR, which is located on chromosome 1q25-q31 and contains six exons encoding a 397-amino-acid protein with 80% homology to the mouse protein. A single 2.3-kb mRNA was detected in all human tissues examined, except for placenta, which also contained a 1.25-kb tissue-specific transcript generated by alternative splicing and encoding a putative 336-amino-acid protein. Although ADIR exhibits low homology to DYT1 and TOR1B, the deduced ADIR protein sequences are highly homologous to torsin A and torsin B and more distantly related to members of the Clp/HSP100 family of proteins, suggesting that ADIR, like torsins, is related to the AAA chaperone-like family of ATPases. An ADIR-EGFP fusion protein expressed in HeLa cells was shown to be associated with the endoplasmic reticulum.