Interruption of endolysosomal trafficking leads to stroke brain injury.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Dysfunction of the endolysosomal system can cause cell death. A key molecule for controlling the endolysosomal trafficking activities is the N-ethylmaleimide-sensitive factor (NSF) ATPase. This study investigates the cascades of NSF ATPase inactivation events, endolysosomal damage, cathepsin release, and neuronal death after focal brain ischemia. METHODS: A total of 62 rats were used in this study. They were subjected to sham surgery or 2 h of focal brain ischemia followed by 1, 4, and 24 h of reperfusion. Confocal microscopy and Western blot analysis were utilized to analyze the levels, redistribution, and co-localization of key proteins of the Golgi apparatus, late endosomes, endolysosomes, and lysosomes. Light and electron microscopy were used to examine the histopathology, protein aggregation, and endolysosomal ultrastructures. RESULTS: Two hours of focal brain ischemia in rats led to acute neuronal death at the striatal core in 4 h and a slower type of neuronal death in the neocortical area during 1-24 h reperfusion periods. Confocal microscopy showed that NSF immunoreactivity was irreversibly and selectively depleted from most, if not all, post-ischemic penumbral neurons. Western blot analysis further demonstrated that NSF depletion from brain sections was due to its deposition into dense inactive aggregates that could not be recognized by the NSF antibody. Commitantly, the Golgi apparatus was completely fragmented and cathepsin B (CTSB)-containing endolysosomal structures, as well as p62/SQSTM1- and EEA1-immunopositive structures were massively accumulated in the post-ischemic penumbral neurons. Ultimately, CTSB was released into the cytoplasm and extracellular space, causing stroke brain injury. CONCLUSION: Stroke Inactivates NSF, resulting in disruption of the reforming of functional endolysosomal compartments, blockade of the endocytic and autophagic pathways, a large scale of CTSB release into the cytoplasm and extracellular space, and stroke brain injury in the rat model.

Glycan Remodeling of Human Erythropoietin (EPO) Through Combined Mammalian Cell Engineering and Chemoenzymatic Transglycosylation.

The tremendous structural heterogeneity of N-glycosylation of glycoproteins poses a great challenge for deciphering the biological functions of specific glycoforms and for developing protein-based therapeutics. We have previously reported a chemoenzymatic glycan remodeling method for producing homogeneous glycoforms of N-glycoproteins including intact antibodies, which consist of endoglycosidase-catalyzed deglycosylation and novel glycosynthase-catalyzed transglycosylation, but its application to complex glycoproteins carrying multiple N-glycans remains to be examined. We report here site-selective chemoenzymatic glycosylation remodeling of recombinant human erythropoietin (EPO) that contains three N-glycans. We found that the generation of a HEK293S GnT I knockout FUT8 overexpressing cell line enabled the production of an unusual Man5GlcNAc2Fuc glycoform, which could be converted to the core-fucosylated GlcNAc-EPO intermediate acceptor for enzymatic transglycosylation. With this acceptor, homogeneous sialylated glycoform or azide-tagged glycoform were produced using the glycosynthase (EndoF3-D165A) catalyzed transglycosylation. Interestingly, a remarkable site-selectivity was observed in the transglycosylation reactions, leading to the introduction of two N-glycans selectively at the Asn-38 and Asn-83 sites, which was confirmed by a detailed MS/MS analysis of the transglycosylation product. Finally, a different N-glycan was attached at the third (Asn-24) site by pushing the enzymatic transglycosylation with a distinct glycan oxazoline, achieving the site-selective glycosylation modification of the protein. This study represents the first example of site-selective chemoenzymatic glycan engineering of complex glycoproteins carrying multiple N-glycans.