Chaperone-mediated autophagy dysregulation during aging impairs hepatic fatty acid oxidation via accumulation of NCoR1.

OBJECTIVE: Alterations in lipid metabolism are associated with aging and age-related diseases. Chaperone-mediated autophagy (CMA) is a lysosome-dependent process involved in specific protein degradation. Heat shock cognate 71 kDa protein (Hsc70) recognizes cytosolic proteins with KFERQ motif and allows them to enter the lysosome via lysosome-associated membrane glycoprotein 2 isoform A (LAMP2A). CMA deficiency is associated with dysregulated lipid metabolism in the liver. In this study, we examined the effect of CMA on lipid metabolism in the aged liver. METHODS: 12-week-old and 88-week-old mice were employed to assess the effect of aging on hepatic CMA activity. We generated CMA-deficient mouse primary hepatocytes using siRNA for Lamp2a and liver-specific LAMP2A knockdown mice via adeno-associated viruses expressing short hairpin RNAs to investigate the influence of CMA on lipid metabolism. RESULTS: We noted aging-induced progression toward fatty liver and a decrease in LAMP2A levels in total protein and lysosomes. The expression of genes associated with fatty acid oxidation was markedly downregulated in the aged liver, as verified in CMA-deficient mouse primary hepatocytes. In addition, the aged liver accumulated nuclear receptor corepressor 1 (NCoR1), a negative regulator of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor α (PPARα). We found that Hsc70 binds to NCoR1 via the KFERQ motif. Lamp2a siRNA treatment accumulated NCoR1 and decreased the fatty acid oxidation rate. Pharmacological activation of CMA by AR7 treatment increased LAMP2A expression, leading to NCoR1 degradation. A liver-specific LAMP2A knockdown via adeno-associated viruses expressing short hairpin RNAs caused NCoR1 accumulation, inactivated PPARα, downregulated the expression of fatty acid oxidation-related genes and significantly increased liver triglyceride levels. CONCLUSIONS: Our results elucidated a novel PPARα regulatory mechanism involving CMA-mediated NCoR1 degradation during aging. These findings demonstrate that CMA dysregulation is crucial for the progression of aging-related fatty liver diseases.

Adenine base editing and prime editing of chemically derived hepatic progenitors rescue genetic liver disease.

DNA base editors and prime editing technology enable therapeutic in situ correction of disease-causing alleles. These techniques could have broad applications for ex vivo editing of cells prior to transplantation in a range of diseases, but it is critical that the target population is efficiently modified and engrafts into the host. Chemically derived hepatic progenitors (CdHs) are a multipotent population capable of robust engraftment and hepatocyte differentiation. Here we reprogrammed hepatocytes from a mouse model of hereditary tyrosinemia type 1 (HT1) into expandable CdHs and successfully corrected the disease-causing mutation using both adenine base editors (ABEs) and prime editors (PEs). ABE- and PE-corrected CdHs repopulated the liver with fumarylacetoacetate hydrolase-positive cells and dramatically increased survival of mutant HT1 mice. These results demonstrate the feasibility of precise gene editing in transplantable cell populations for potential treatment of genetic liver disease.

Purification of an Intact Human Protein Overexpressed from Its Endogenous Locus via Direct Genome Engineering.

The overproduction and purification of human proteins is a requisite of both basic and medical research. Although many recombinant human proteins have been purified, current protein production methods have several limitations; recombinant proteins are frequently truncated, fail to fold properly, and/or lack appropriate post-translational modifications. In addition, such methods require subcloning of the target gene into relevant plasmids, which can be difficult for long proteins with repeated domains. Here we devised a novel method for target protein production by introduction of a strong promoter for overexpression and an epitope tag for purification in front of the endogenous human gene, in a sense performing molecular cloning directly in the human genome, which does not require cloning of the target gene. As a proof of concept, we successfully purified intact human Reelin protein, which is lengthy (3460 amino acids) and contains repeating domains, and confirmed that it was biologically functional.

CRISPR-mediated gene correction links the ATP7A M1311V mutations with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis pathogenesis in one individual.

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a severe disease causing motor neuron death, but a complete cure has not been developed and related genes have not been defined in more than 80% of cases. Here we compared whole genome sequencing results from a male ALS patient and his healthy parents to identify relevant variants, and chose one variant in the X-linked ATP7A gene, M1311V, as a strong disease-linked candidate after profound examination. Although this variant is not rare in the Ashkenazi Jewish population according to results in the genome aggregation database (gnomAD), CRISPR-mediated gene correction of this mutation in patient-derived and re-differentiated motor neurons drastically rescued neuronal activities and functions. These results suggest that the ATP7A M1311V mutation has a potential responsibility for ALS in this patient and might be a potential therapeutic target, revealed here by a personalized medicine strategy.

Construction of non-canonical PAM-targeting adenosine base editors by restriction enzyme-free DNA cloning using CRISPR-Cas9.

Molecular cloning is an essential technique in molecular biology and biochemistry, but it is frequently laborious when adequate restriction enzyme recognition sites are absent. Cas9 endonucleases can induce site-specific DNA double-strand breaks at sites homologous to their guide RNAs, rendering an alternative to restriction enzymes. Here, by combining DNA cleavage via a Cas9 endonuclease and DNA ligation via Gibson assembly, we demonstrate a precise and practical DNA cloning method for replacing part of a backbone plasmid. We first replaced a resistance marker gene as a proof of concept and next generated DNA plasmids that encode engineered Cas9 variants (VQR, VRER and SpCas9-NG), which target non-canonical NGA, NGCG and NG protospacer-adjacent motif (PAM) sequences, fused with adenosine deaminases for adenine base editing (named VQR-ABE, VRER-ABE and NG-ABE, respectively). Ultimately, we confirmed that the re-constructed plasmids can successfully convert adenosine to guanine at endogenous target sites containing the non-canonical NGA, NGCG and NG PAMs, expanding the targetable range of the adenine base editing.

ID3 regulates the MDC1-mediated DNA damage response in order to maintain genome stability.

MDC1 plays a critical role in the DNA damage response (DDR) by interacting directly with several factors including γ-H2AX. However, the mechanism by which MDC1 is recruited to damaged sites remains elusive. Here, we show that MDC1 interacts with a helix-loop-helix (HLH)-containing protein called inhibitor of DNA-binding 3 (ID3). In response to double-strand breaks (DSBs) in the genome, ATM phosphorylates ID3 at serine 65 within the HLH motif, and this modification allows a direct interaction with MDC1. Moreover, depletion of ID3 results in impaired formation of ionizing radiation (IR)-induced MDC1 foci, suppression of γ-H2AX-bound MDC1, impaired DSB repair, cellular hypersensitivity to IR, and genomic instability. Disruption of the MDC1-ID3 interaction prevents accumulation of MDC1 at sites of DSBs and suppresses DSB repair. Thus, our study uncovers an ID3-dependent mechanism of recruitment of MDC1 to DNA damage sites and suggests that the ID3-MDC1 interaction is crucial for DDR.MDC1 is a key component of the DNA damage response and interacts with several factors such as γ-H2AX. Here the authors show that MDC1 interacts with ID3, facilitating MDC1 recruitment to sites of damage and repair of breaks.