The sleep-modulating peptide orexin-B protects midbrain dopamine neurons from degeneration, alone or in cooperation with nicotine.

To determine whether orexinergic hypothalamic peptides can influence the survival of brainstem dopamine (DA) neurons, we used a model system of rat midbrain cultures in which DA neurons degenerate spontaneously and progressively as they mature. We established that orexin (OX)-B provides partial but significant protection to spontaneously dying DA neurons, whereas the homologous peptide OXA has only marginal effects. Importantly, DA neurons rescued by OXB accumulated DA efficiently by active transport, suggesting that they were functional. G-protein-coupled OX1 and OX2 receptors were both present on DA neurons, but the protective effect of OXB was attributable solely to OX2 receptors; a selective inhibitor of this receptor subtype, N-ethyl-2-[(6-methoxy-3-pyridinyl)[(2-methylphenyl)sulfonyl]amino]-N-(3-pyridinylmethyl)-acetamide (EMPA), suppressed this effect, whereas a selective agonist, [Ala(11), d-Leu(15)]OXB, reproduced it. Survival promotion by OXB required intracellular calcium mobilization via inositol-1,4,5-triphosphate and ryanodine receptors. Nicotine, a well known neuroprotective molecule for DA neurons, improved OXB-mediated rescue through the activation of α-bungarotoxin-sensitive (presumably α7) nicotinic receptors, although nicotine had no effect on its own. Altogether, our data suggest that the loss of hypothalamic orexinergic neurons that occurs in Parkinson's disease might confer an increased vulnerability to midbrain DA neurons in this disorder.

Dual functions of the Hsm3 protein in chaperoning and scaffolding regulatory particle subunits during the proteasome assembly.

The 26S proteasome, a molecular machine responsible for regulated protein degradation, consists of a proteolytic core particle (20S CP) associated with 19S regulatory particles (19S RPs) subdivided into base and lid subcomplexes. The assembly of 19S RP base subcomplex is mediated by multiple dedicated chaperones. Among these, Hsm3 is important for normal growth and directly targets the carboxyl-terminal (C-terminal) domain of Rpt1 of the Rpt1-Rpt2-Rpn1 assembly intermediate. Here, we report crystal structures of the yeast Hsm3 chaperone free and bound to the C-terminal domain of Rpt1. Unexpectedly, the structure of the complex suggests that within the Hsm3-Rpt1-Rpt2 module, Hsm3 also contacts Rpt2. We show that in both yeast and mammals, Hsm3 actually directly binds the AAA domain of Rpt2. The Hsm3 C-terminal region involved in this interaction is required in vivo for base assembly, although it is dispensable for binding Rpt1. Although Rpt1 and Rpt2 exhibit weak affinity for each other, Hsm3 unexpectedly acts as an essential matchmaker for the Rpt1-Rpt2-Rpn1 assembly by bridging both Rpt1 and Rpt2. In addition, we provide structural and biochemical evidence on how Hsm3/S5b may regulate the 19S RP association to the 20S CP proteasome. Our data point out the diverse functions of assembly chaperones.

The iron-binding protein lactoferrin protects vulnerable dopamine neurons from degeneration by preserving mitochondrial calcium homeostasis.

Previous studies on postmortem human brain tissue have shown that the iron-binding glycoprotein lactoferrin is upregulated in dopamine (DA) neurons resistant to degeneration in Parkinson disease (PD). To study how this could possibly relate to disease progression, we used midbrain cultures and experimental settings that model the progressive loss of DA neurons in this disorder. Human lactoferrin of either recombinant or natural origin provided robust protection to vulnerable DA neurons in a culture paradigm in which these neurons die spontaneously and selectively as they mature. The efficacy of lactoferrin was comparable to that of glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor, a prototypical neurotrophic factor for DA neurons. Neuroprotection by lactoferrin was attributable to its binding to heparan sulfate proteoglycans on the cell surface of DA neurons and subsequently to partial inactivation of focal adhesion kinase (FAK), a major effector kinase of integrins. We established that FAK inactivation served to unmask a prosurvival phosphoinositide 3-kinase/AKT-dependent signaling pathway that stimulates calcium shuttling from endoplasmic reticulum to mitochondria. DA neurons exposed to the mitochondrial toxin 1-methyl-4-phenylpyridinium were also partially protected by lactoferrin, further supporting the view that mitochondria may represent a downstream target for lactoferrin protective actions. Finally, we found that the iron binding capability of lactoferrin intervened in DA cell rescue only when neurodegeneration was consecutive to iron-catalyzed oxidative stress. Overall, our data suggest that the accumulation of lactoferrin in PD brains might be evidence of an attempt by the brain to minimize the consequences of neurodegeneration.

Misfolding of proteins with a polyglutamine expansion is facilitated by proteasomal chaperones.

Deposition of misfolded proteins with a polyglutamine expansion is a hallmark of Huntington disease and other neurodegenerative disorders. Impairment of the proteolytic function of the proteasome has been reported to be both a cause and a consequence of polyglutamine accumulation. Here we found that the proteasomal chaperones that unfold proteins to be degraded by the proteasome but also have non-proteolytic functions co-localized with huntingtin inclusions both in primary neurons and in Huntington disease patients and formed a complex independently of the proteolytic particle. Overexpression of Rpt4 or Rpt6 facilitated aggregation of mutant huntingtin and ataxin-3 without affecting proteasomal degradation. Conversely, reducing Rpt6 or Rpt4 levels decreased the number of inclusions in primary neurons, indicating that endogenous Rpt4 and Rpt6 facilitate inclusion formation. In vitro reconstitution experiments revealed that purified 19S particles promote mutant huntingtin aggregation. When fused to the ornithine decarboxylase destabilizing sequence, proteins with expanded polyglutamine were efficiently degraded and did not aggregate. We propose that aggregation of proteins with expanded polyglutamine is not a consequence of a proteolytic failure of the 20S proteasome. Rather, aggregation is elicited by chaperone subunits of the 19S particle independently of proteolysis.

Targeting expression of expanded polyglutamine proteins to the endoplasmic reticulum or mitochondria prevents their aggregation.

Aggregation of misfolded proteins is a characteristic of several neurodegenerative diseases. The huntingtin amino-terminal fragment with extended polyglutamine repeat forms aggregates closely associated with chaperones both in the cytoplasm and the nucleus. Because each cellular compartment contains distinct chaperones and because the molecular mechanisms controlling polyglutamine aggregation are largely unknown, we decided to investigate the influence of different cellular environments on the aggregation of this pathological protein. Here, we show that aggregation of a protein containing a polyglutamine stretch of pathological length is abolished when its expression is targeted to the endoplasmic reticulum. Once retrogradely transported outside the endoplasmic reticulum, the aggregation-prone polyglutamine-containing protein recovers its ability to aggregate. When expressed in the mitochondria, a protein containing 73 glutamines is entirely soluble, whereas the nucleocytosolic equivalent has an extremely high tendency to aggregate. Our data imply that polyglutamine aggregation is a property restricted to the nucleocytosolic compartment and suggest the existence of compartment-specific cofactors promoting or preventing aggregation of pathological proteins.