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Cytotoxicity of mutant huntingtin fragment in yeast can be modulated by the expression level of wild type huntingtin fragment.

ABSTRACT: Conflicting reports exist in the literature regarding the role of wild-type huntingtin in determining the toxicity of the aggregated, mutant huntingtin in Huntington's disease (HD). Some studies report the amelioration of toxicity of the mutant protein in the presence of the wild-type protein, while others indicate sequestration of the wild-type protein by mutant huntingtin. Over the years, yeast has been established as a valid model organism to study molecular changes associated with HD, especially at the protein level. We have used an inducible system to express human huntingtin fragments harboring normal (25Q) and pathogenic (103Q) polyglutamine lengths under the control of a galactose promoter in a yeast model of HD. We show that the relative expression level of each allele (wild-type/mutant) decides the cellular phenotype. When the expression level of wild-type huntingtin is high, an increase in the solubility of the mutant protein is observed. Fluorescence-recovery-after-photobleaching (FRAP) studies show that solubility reaches ?94% in these cells. This leads to reduction in oxidative stress and cytotoxicity, and increases cell viability. In-cell FRET studies show that interaction between these proteins does not require the presence of a mediator. When the expression of wild-type huntingtin is low, it is sequestered into aggregates by the mutant protein. Even under these conditions, cytotoxicity is attenuated. Our findings indicate that the presence of wild-type huntingtin has a beneficial role even when its relative expression level is lower than that of the mutant protein.

SUBMITTER: Saleh AA

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3963126 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Project description:BACKGROUND:Huntington disease (HD) is a devastating inherited neurodegenerative disorder characterized by progressive motor, cognitive, and psychiatric symptoms without any cure to slow down or stop the progress of the disease. The BACHD rat model for HD carrying the human full-length mutant huntingtin protein (mHTT) with 97 polyQ repeats has been recently established as a promising model which reproduces several HD-like features. While motor and cognitive functions have been characterized in BACHD rats, little is known about their social phenotype. OBJECTIVE:This study focuses especially on social behavior since evidence for social disturbances exists in human patients. Our objective was to compare social behavior in BACHD and wild-type (WT) rats at different ages, using two different measures of sociability. METHODS:Animals were tested longitudinally at the age of 2, 4 and 8 months in the social interaction test to examine different parameters of sociability. A separate cohort of 7 month old rats was tested in the three chamber social test to measure both sociability and social novelty. Gene expression analyses in 8 months old animals were performed by real time qRT-PCR to evaluate a potential involvement of D1 and D2 dopaminergic receptors and the contribution of Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) to the observed behavioral alterations. RESULTS:In the social interaction test, BACHD rats showed age-dependent changes in behaviour when they were-re introduced to their cagemate after a 24 hours-period of individual housing. The time spent on nape attacks increased with aging. Furthermore, a significant higher level of pinning at 2 months of age was shown in the BACHD rats compared to wild-types, followed by a reduction at 4 and 8 months. On the other hand, BACHD rats exhibited a decreased active social behaviour compared to wild-types, reflected by genotype-effects on approaching, following and social nose contact. In the three chamber social test, BACHD rats seemed to show a mild deficit in preference for social novelty, but no changes in social interest. Molecular analyses revealed that BACHD animals exposed to the social interaction test displayed decreased mRNA levels of the total form of BDNF in ventral striatum and unaltered striatal expression of D1 and D2 dopamine receptors. CONCLUSIONS:Taken together, these results indicate deficits in several parameters representative of sociability. Altered BDNF expression in the ventral striatum may contribute to the deficits in sociability in 8 months old BACHD rats. These data support the validity of the BACHD rat model in mimicking features of certain social deficits that could be relevant to symptoms in patients.

Project description:The effect of sampling time in the context of growth conditions on a dynamic metabolic system was investigated in order to assess to what extent a single sampling time may be sufficient for general application, as well as to determine if useful kinetic information could be obtained. A wild type yeast strain (W) was compared to a snf1Delta mutant yeast strain (S) grown in high-glucose medium (R) and in low-glucose medium containing ethanol (DR). Under these growth conditions, different metabolic pathways for utilizing the different carbon sources are expected to be active. Thus, changes in metabolite levels relating to the carbon source in the growth medium were anticipated. Furthermore, the Snf1 protein kinase complex is required to adapt cellular metabolism from fermentative R conditions to oxidative DR conditions. So, differences in intracellular metabolite levels between the W and S yeast strains were also anticipated. Cell extracts were collected at four time points (0.5, 2, 4, 6 h) after shifting half of the cells from R to DR conditions, resulting in 16 sample classes (WR, WDR, SR, SDR) x (0.5, 2, 4, 6 h). The experimental design provided time course data, so temporal dependencies could be monitored in addition to carbon source and strain dependencies. Comprehensive two-dimensional (2D) gas chromatography coupled to time-of-flight mass spectrometry (GC x GC-TOFMS) was used with discovery-based data mining algorithms ( Anal. Chem. 2006, 78, 5068-5075 (ref 1); J. Chromatogr., A 2008, 1186, 401-411 (ref 2)) to locate regions within the 2D chromatograms (i.e., metabolites) that provided chemical selectivity between the 16 sample classes. These regions were mathematically resolved using parallel factor analysis to positively identify the metabolites and to acquire quantitative results. With these tools, 51 unique metabolites were identified and quantified. Various time course patterns emerged from these data, and principal component analysis (PCA) was utilized as a comparison tool to determine the sources of variance between these 51 metabolites. The effect of sampling time was investigated with separate PCA analyses using various subsets of the data. PCA utilizing all of the time course data, averaged time course data, and each individual time point data set independently were performed to discern the differences. For the yeast strains examined in the current study, data collection at either 4 or 6 h provided information comparable to averaged time course data, albeit with a few metabolites missing using a single sampling time point.

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Cytotoxicity of mutant huntingtin fragment in yeast can be modulated by the expression level of wild type huntingtin fragment.

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