Project description:Autophagic and endosomal dysfunctions are prominently observed at preclinical stages of Alzheimer's disease (AD) as well as in presenilin (PSEN) 1-deficient mice and neurons. In the latter, the defects relate to the γ-secretase-independent role of PSEN in lysosomal fusion and organelle turnover. While we demonstrated previously that the impaired capacity of lysosomal fusion is associated with a significant reduction in lysosomal calcium storage/release, the underlying mechanism remained unexplored. Here we demonstrate that PSEN-deficient cells are impaired in endosomal recycling of several cargo proteins reminiscent of clathrin-independent carriers and lipid rafts. This is accompanied by the accumulation of cholesterol in LAMP1-positive organelles. The small GTPase ARF6, an important regulator of lipid raft recycling, fully rescues the endo-lysosomal abnormalities in PSEN-/- cells, suggesting that defective recycling is upstream of lysosomal dysfunction. PSEN-/- cells and neurons present significantly reduced ARF6 expression levels. Importantly, similar decreased ARF6 levels are observed in aging murine neurons and brain and are even more pronounced in AD brains, suggesting a particular vulnerability of ARF6-mediated recycling in the early etiology of AD.
Project description:Lysosomal cathepsins regulate an exquisite range of biological functions, and their deregulation is associated with inflammatory, metabolic and degenerative disease in humans. Here, we identified a key cell-intrinsic role for cathepsin B as a negative feedback regulator of lysosomal biogenesis and autophagy. Mice and macrophages lacking cathepsin B activity had increased resistance to the cytosolic bacterial pathogen Francisella novicida. Genetic deletion or pharmacological inhibition of cathepsin B downregulated mTOR activity and prevented cleavage of the lysosomal calcium channel TRPML1. These events drove transcription of lysosomal and autophagy genes via the transcription factor TFEB, which increased lysosomal biogenesis and activation of autophagy-initiation kinase ULK1 for clearance of the bacteria. Our results identified a fundamental biological function of cathepsin B in providing a checkpoint for homeostatic maintenance of lysosome population and basic recycling functions in the cell. We used microarrays to explore the gene expression profiles differentially expressed in bone marrow-derived macrophages (BMDM) isolated from cathepsin B-/- and wild-type mice.
Project description:Following endocytosis into the endosomal network, integral membrane proteins undergo sorting for lysosomal degradation or are retrieved and recycled back to the cell surface. Here we describe the discovery of an ancient and conserved multiprotein complex which orchestrates cargo retrieval and recycling and importantly, is biochemically and functionally distinct to the established retromer pathway. Composed of a heterotrimer of DSCR3, C16orf62 and VPS29, and bearing striking similarity with retromer, we have called this complex ‘retriever’. We establish that retriever associates with the cargo adaptor sorting nexin 17 (SNX17) and couples to CCC (CCDC93, CCDC22, COMMD) and WASH complexes to prevent lysosomal degradation and promote cell surface recycling of α5β1-integrin. Through quantitative proteomic analysis we identify over 120 cell surface proteins, including numerous integrins, signalling receptors and solute transporters, which require SNX17-retriever to maintain their surface levels. Our identification of retriever establishes a major endosomal retrieval and recycling pathway.
Project description:Lysosomal cathepsins regulate an exquisite range of biological functions, and their deregulation is associated with inflammatory, metabolic and degenerative disease in humans. Here, we identified a key cell-intrinsic role for cathepsin B as a negative feedback regulator of lysosomal biogenesis and autophagy. Mice and macrophages lacking cathepsin B activity had increased resistance to the cytosolic bacterial pathogen Francisella novicida. Genetic deletion or pharmacological inhibition of cathepsin B downregulated mTOR activity and prevented cleavage of the lysosomal calcium channel TRPML1. These events drove transcription of lysosomal and autophagy genes via the transcription factor TFEB, which increased lysosomal biogenesis and activation of autophagy-initiation kinase ULK1 for clearance of the bacteria. Our results identified a fundamental biological function of cathepsin B in providing a checkpoint for homeostatic maintenance of lysosome population and basic recycling functions in the cell.
Project description:Purpose: Endosomal-lysosomal system is one of the pivotal degradation system for a varieties of extracellular substances, of which dysfunction has been indicated to be associated with cardiovascular and neurodegenerative diseases. This degradation process consists of multiple steps; uptake of extracellular molecules, endosomal formation and its transportation to lysosomes, and digestion by lysosomal enzymes. Whereas TFEB, is a transcriptional factor, has been well studied as a master regulator of cellular uptake and lysosomal function, a key regulatory mechanism for endosomal maturation remains unclear. We previously found that isorhamnetin, a dietary flavonoid, enhanced the endosomal-lysosomal proteolysis in J774.1 macrophage-like cell line, which was independent on mTORC1-TFEB axis. In this study, we analyzed the molecular mechanism of activated endosomal-lysosomal degradation by isorhamnetin.
Project description:Loss of the Sortilin-related receptor 1 (SORL1) gene seems to act as a causal event for Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Recent studies have established that loss of SORL1, as well as mutations in autosomal dominant AD genes APP and PSEN1/2, pathogenically converge by swelling early endosomes, AD’s cytopathological hallmark. Acting together with the retromer trafficking complex, SORL1 has been shown to regulate the recycling of the amyloid precursor protein (APP) out of the endosome, contributing to endosomal swelling and to APP misprocessing. We hypothesized that SORL1 plays a broader role in neuronal endosomal recycling and used human induced pluripotent stem cell derived neurons (hiPSC-Ns) to test this hypothesis. In SORL1 deficient (SORL1KO) cell lines, we map the trafficking of the glutamate receptor and the BDNF neurotrophic receptor, two kinds of transmembrane proteins that depend on endosomal recycling and that are linked to AD pathophysiology. We find that as with APP, SORL1 is required for efficient endosomal recycling of the glutamate receptor AMPA1 (GLUA1) and the BDNF receptor Tropomyosin-related kinase B (TRKB). Next, we used cell lines engineered to overexpress SORL1 and find that increased SORL1 expression enhances recycling for APP and GLUA1. Finally, we performed an unbiased transcriptomic screen of SORL1KO neurons and the data further support SORL1’s role in endosomal recycling. We observed altered expression networks that regulate cell surface trafficking and neurotrophic signaling. Collectively, and together with other recent observations, these findings suggest that SORL1 is a key and broad regulator of retromer-dependent endosomal recycling in neurons, a conclusion that has both pathogenic and therapeutic implications.
Project description:Autophagy is a finely orchestrated process required for the lysosomal degradation of cytosolic components. The final degradation step is essential for clearing autophagic cargo and recycling macromolecules. We identified a highly conserved transmembrane protein named RNAseK as a novel regulator of autophagosome degradation. Analyses of RNAseK knockout cells revealed that, while autophagosome maturation was intact, cargo degradation was severely disrupted. Importantly, lysosomal protease activity and acidification remained intact in the absence of RNAseK suggesting a specificity to autolysosome degradation. Analyses of lysosome fractions showed reduced levels of a subset of hydrolases in the absence of RNAseK. Of these, the knockdown of PLD3 led to a defect in autophagosome clearance. In addition, the lysosomal fraction of RNAseK-depleted cells exhibited an accumulation of the ESCRT-III complex component, VPS4a, which is required for the lysosomal targeting of PLD3. Altogether, our findings identified a lysosomal hydrolase delivery pathway required to mediate efficient autolysosome degradation.
Project description:Dysregulation of the PI3K/AKT pathway is a common occurrence in ovarian carcinomas. Loss of the tumour suppressor PTEN in high-grade serous ovarian carcinoma (HGSOC) is associated with a patient subgroup with poor prognosis. The cellular mechanisms of how PTEN loss contributes to HGSOC are largely unknown. We utilise long-term time-lapse imaging of HGSOC spheroids coupled to a machine learning approach to classify the phenotype of PTEN loss. PTEN deficiency does not affect proliferation but rather induces PI(3,4,5)P3-rich and -dependent membrane protrusions into the extracellular matrix (ECM), resulting in a collective invasion phenotype. We identify the small GTPase ARF6 as a crucial vulnerability upon PTEN loss. Through a functional proteomic CRISPR screen of ARF6 interactors, we identify the ARF GTPase-activating protein (GAP) AGAP1 and the ECM receptor β1-integrin as key ARF6 interactors regulating the PTEN loss-associated invasion phenotype. ARF6 functions to promote invasion by controlling the recycling of internalised, active β1-integrin complexes to maintain invasive activity into the ECM. The expression of the ARF6-centred complex in HGSOC patients is inversely associated with outcome, allowing identification of patient groups with improved versus poor outcome. ARF6 may represent a new therapeutic vulnerability in PTEN-depleted HGSOC tumours.
Project description:The endocytic pathway is of central importance for eukaryotic cells, as it enables uptake of extracellular materials, membrane protein quality control and recycling, as well as modulation of receptor signaling. While the ATPase p97 (VCP, Cdc48) has been found to be involved in the fusion of early endosomes and endolysosomal degradation, its role in endocytic trafficking is still incompletely characterized. Here, we identify myoferlin (MYOF), a ferlin family member with functions in membrane trafficking and repair, as a hitherto unknown p97 interactor. The interaction of MYOF with p97 depends on the cofactor PLAA previously linked to endosomal sorting. Besides PLAA, shared interactors of p97 and MYOF comprise several proteins involved in endosomal recycling pathways, including Rab11, Rab14 and the transferrin receptor CD71. Accordingly, a fraction of p97 and PLAA localizes to MYOF-, Rab11-, and Rab14-positive endosomal compartments. Pharmacological inhibition of p97 delays transferrin recycling, indicating that p97 promotes not only the lysosomal degradation, but also the recycling of endocytic cargo.
Project description:Tumour-host immune interactions lead to complex changes in the tumour microenvironment (TME), impacting progression, metastasis and response to therapy. While it is clear that cancer cells can have the capacity to alter immune landscapes, our understanding of this process is incomplete. Herein we show that endocytic trafficking at the plasma membrane, mediated by the small GTPase ARF6, enables melanoma cells to impose an immunosuppressive TME that accelerates tumour development. This ARF6-dependent TME is vulnerable to immune checkpoint blockade therapy (ICB) but in murine melanoma, loss of Arf6 causes resistance to ICB. Likewise, downregulation of ARF6 in patient tumours correlates with inferior overall survival after ICB. Mechanistically, these phenotypes are at least partially explained by ARF6-dependent recycling, which controls plasma membrane density of the Interferon-gamma receptor. Collectively, our findings reveal the importance of endomembrane trafficking in outfitting tumour cells with the ability to shape their immune microenvironment and respond to immunotherapy.