Pharmacological targeting of MCL-1 promotes mitophagy and improves disease pathologies in an Alzheimer's disease mouse model.
Nat Commun
; 11(1): 5731, 2020 11 12.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-33184293
ABSTRACT
There is increasing evidence that inducing neuronal mitophagy can be used as a therapeutic intervention for Alzheimer's disease. Here, we screen a library of 2024 FDA-approved drugs or drug candidates, revealing UMI-77 as an unexpected mitophagy activator. UMI-77 is an established BH3-mimetic for MCL-1 and was developed to induce apoptosis in cancer cells. We found that at sub-lethal doses, UMI-77 potently induces mitophagy, independent of apoptosis. Our mechanistic studies discovered that MCL-1 is a mitophagy receptor and directly binds to LC3A. Finally, we found that UMI-77 can induce mitophagy in vivo and that it effectively reverses molecular and behavioral phenotypes in the APP/PS1 mouse model of Alzheimer's disease. Our findings shed light on the mechanisms of mitophagy, reveal that MCL-1 is a mitophagy receptor that can be targeted to induce mitophagy, and identify MCL-1 as a drug target for therapeutic intervention in Alzheimer's disease.
Full text:
1
Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Alzheimer Disease
/
Mitophagy
/
Myeloid Cell Leukemia Sequence 1 Protein
Type of study:
Prognostic_studies
Limits:
Animals
/
Humans
/
Male
Language:
En
Journal:
Nat Commun
Journal subject:
BIOLOGIA
/
CIENCIA
Year:
2020
Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
China