1. Endosulfine-alpha inhibits membrane-induced α-synuclein aggregation and protects against α-synuclein neurotoxicity.
- Author
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Ysselstein D, Dehay B, Costantino IM, McCabe GP, Frosch MP, George JM, Bezard E, and Rochet JC
- Subjects
- Adenoviridae, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Animals, Brain drug effects, Brain metabolism, Brain pathology, Cell Membrane metabolism, Cells, Cultured, Cohort Studies, Dopaminergic Neurons drug effects, Dopaminergic Neurons metabolism, Dopaminergic Neurons pathology, Escherichia coli, Female, HEK293 Cells, Humans, Intercellular Signaling Peptides and Proteins, Lewy Body Disease metabolism, Lewy Body Disease pathology, Male, Middle Aged, Neuroprotective Agents metabolism, Peptides metabolism, Protein Aggregation, Pathological metabolism, Rats, Sprague-Dawley, Recombinant Proteins drug effects, Recombinant Proteins genetics, Recombinant Proteins metabolism, Unilamellar Liposomes chemistry, alpha-Synuclein genetics, alpha-Synuclein metabolism, Cell Membrane drug effects, Neuroprotective Agents pharmacology, Peptides pharmacology, Protein Aggregation, Pathological drug therapy, alpha-Synuclein drug effects
- Abstract
Neuropathological and genetic findings suggest that the presynaptic protein α-synuclein (aSyn) is involved in the pathogenesis of synucleinopathy disorders, including Parkinson's disease (PD), dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) and multiple system atrophy. Evidence suggests that the self-assembly of aSyn conformers bound to phospholipid membranes in an aggregation-prone state plays a key role in aSyn neurotoxicity. Accordingly, we hypothesized that protein binding partners of lipid-associated aSyn could inhibit the formation of toxic aSyn oligomers at membrane surfaces. To address this hypothesis, we characterized the protein endosulfine-alpha (ENSA), previously shown to interact selectively with membrane-bound aSyn, in terms of its effects on the membrane-induced aggregation and neurotoxicity of two familial aSyn mutants, A30P and G51D. We found that wild-type ENSA, but not the non-aSyn-binding S109E variant, interfered with membrane-induced aSyn self-assembly, aSyn-mediated vesicle disruption and aSyn neurotoxicity. Immunoblotting analyses revealed that ENSA was down-regulated in the brains of synucleinopathy patients versus non-diseased individuals. Collectively, these results suggest that ENSA can alleviate neurotoxic effects of membrane-bound aSyn via an apparent chaperone-like activity at the membrane surface, and a decrease in ENSA expression may contribute to aSyn neuropathology in synucleinopathy disorders. More generally, our findings suggest that promoting interactions between lipid-bound, amyloidogenic proteins and their binding partners is a viable strategy to alleviate cytotoxicity in a range of protein misfolding disorders.
- Published
- 2017
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