Phosphorylation of Huntingtin at Residue T3 Is Decreased In
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Phosphorylation of huntingtin at residue T3 is PNAS PLUS decreased in Huntington’s disease and modulates mutant huntingtin protein conformation Cristina Cariuloa,1, Lucia Azzollinia,1, Margherita Verania, Paola Martufia, Roberto Boggiob, Anass Chikic, Sean M. Deguirec, Marta Cherubinid,e, Silvia Ginesd,e, J. Lawrence Marshf, Paola Confortig,h, Elena Cattaneog,h, Iolanda Santimonei, Ferdinando Squitierii, Hilal A. Lashuelc,2, Lara Petriccaa,2,3, and Andrea Caricasolea,2,3 aDepartment of Neuroscience, IRBM Science Park, 00071 Pomezia, Rome, Italy; bIRBM Promidis, 00071 Pomezia, Rome, Italy; cLaboratory of Molecular and Chemical Biology of Neurodegeneration, Brain Mind Institute, School of Life Sciences, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland; dDepartamento de Biomedicina, Facultad de Medicina, Instituto de Neurociencias, Universidad de Barcelona, 08035 Barcelona, Spain; eInstitut d’Investigacions Biomèdiques August Pi i Sunyer (IDIBAPS), 08036 Barcelona, Spain; fDepartment of Developmental and Cell Biology, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697; gLaboratory of Stem Cell Biology and Pharmacology of Neurodegenerative Diseases, Department of Biosciences, University of Milan, 20122 Milan, Italy; hIstituto Nazionale Genetica Molecolare (INGM) Romeo ed Enrica Invernizzi, Milan 20122, Italy; and iHuntington and Rare Diseases Unit, Istituto di Ricovero e Cura a Carattere Scientifico (IRCCS) Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza, 71013 San Giovanni Rotondo, Italy Edited by Solomon H. Snyder, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, and approved October 25, 2017 (received for review April 10, 2017) Posttranslational modifications can have profound effects on the reviewed in ref. 13). The mutation leads to the production of biological and biophysical properties of proteins associated with huntingtin protein (HTT) bearing a polyglutamine expansion misfolding and aggregation. However, their detection and quan- (polyQ) within its amino terminus (N-term). Consistent with a tification in clinical samples and an understanding of the mecha- determinant role in the pathology, the size of the polyQ expansion nisms underlying the pathological properties of misfolding- and demonstrates a strong inverse correlation with the age-of-onset aggregation-prone proteins remain a challenge for diagnostics of the characteristic clinical (motor, psychiatric, and cognitive) and therapeutics development. We have applied an ultrasensitive symptoms (14, 15). The CAG repeat/polyQ expansion is believed immunoassay platform to develop and validate a quantitative to cause pathology primarily through a gain-of-function, which assay for detecting a posttranslational modification (phosphoryla- imparts novel characteristics on mutant HTT, including the pro- tion at residue T3) of a protein associated with polyglutamine duction of N-terminal fragments, likely through aberrant mRNA repeat expansion, namely Huntingtin, and characterized its pres- splicing as well as proteolytic events (16, 17). Mutant HTT N-term ence in a variety of preclinical and clinical samples. We find that fragments have been described to misfold and form detectable T3 phosphorylation is greatly reduced in samples from Hunting- aggregates, and their overexpression has been reported to re- ton’s disease models and in Huntington’s disease patients, and we produce several aspects of HD in animal models (18–21; reviewed provide evidence that bona-fide T3 phosphorylation alters Hun- in ref. 22). The expansion of the polyQ domain associated with tingtin exon 1 protein conformation and aggregation properties. the HD mutation was recently shown to alter the conformation These findings have significant implications for both mechanisms of disease pathogenesis and the development of therapeutics and Significance diagnostics for Huntington’s disease. The findings in this manuscript report on the identification of a huntingtin | posttranslational modification | immunoassay | posttranslational modification in the huntingtin protein phosphorylation | neurodegeneration (phosphorylation on residue T3 in the N17 region of the pro- tein), which can revert the conformational effects of the Hun- osttranslational modifications (PTMs) likely evolved as a tington’s disease (HD) mutation itself on the huntingtin protein Pstrategy to flexibly modulate protein structure and function in and inhibit its aggregation properties in vitro. Using the first response to developmental, homeostatic, or physiological re- ultrasensitive immunoassay for a posttranslational modifica- quirements without the need to exert permanent changes at the tion of huntingtin protein, we demonstrate that pT3 levels are genetic level (1). In recent years, it has become apparent that decreased in mutant huntingtin in preclinical models as well as PTMs are extremely diverse and widespread and decorate pro- in clinically relevant samples from HD patients. These findings teins at multiple sites, thus increasing exponentially the capacity are of high significance to Huntington’s disease biology, pro- for adoption of multiple structural and functional states of a vide insights into mechanisms of Huntington’s disease patho- protein (2). Many neurodegenerative diseases are associated genesis, and open new opportunities for the development of ’ with accumulation and misfolding of specific proteins (3, 4), therapeutics and diagnostics for Huntington s disease. often associated with changes in PTM status. Some PTMs such Author contributions: L.P. and A. Caricasole designed research with contributions from as phosphorylation can have profound influences on the struc- H.A.L.; C.C., L.A., M.V., and P.M. performed research; R.B., A. Chiki, S.M.D., M.C., S.G., ture, function, and pathology-related properties of proteins as- J.L.M., P.C., E.C., I.S., F.S., and H.A.L. contributed new reagents/analytic tools; C.C., L.A., sociated with neurodegeneration [for example, TAU, Androgen M.V., P.M., and L.P. analyzed data; and C.C., L.A., L.P., and A. Caricasole wrote the paper. – Receptor, and Huntingtin (5 10)]. Their modulation therefore The authors declare no conflict of interest. NEUROSCIENCE represents an attractive candidate therapeutic approach (7, 8, This article is a PNAS Direct Submission. 11). However, the transient character of most PTMs presents a This open access article is distributed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial- challenge for the development of assays to detect, monitor, and NoDerivatives License 4.0 (CC BY-NC-ND). quantify PTMs, thus impeding the identification of mechanisti- 1C.C. and L.A. contributed equally to this work. cally relevant PTMs, the establishment of their role in disease 2L.P. and A. Caricasole contributed equally to this work. pathogenesis, and the discovery of their modulators. 3To whom correspondence may be addressed. Email: [email protected], l.petricca@ Huntington’s disease (HD) is a progressive, autosomal-dominant irbm.it, or [email protected]. neurodegenerative disease caused by a triplet repeat expansion This article contains supporting information online at www.pnas.org/lookup/suppl/doi:10. mutation within exon 1 of the huntingtin gene (HTT)(12; 1073/pnas.1705372114/-/DCSupplemental. www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1705372114 PNAS | Published online November 21, 2017 | E10809–E10818 Downloaded by guest on October 1, 2021 A C i) 20 KDa__ pT3 ii) 20 KDa__ 4C9 Fig. 1. Profiling of anti-pT3 HTT antibody. (A)The pT3 signal is specific for the presence of a phos- B D phorylated T3 residue. Western immunoblotting profiling of anti-pT3 antibody on semisynthetic HTT Q23 EX1 protein, HTT EX1 Q23 protein with phos- phorylated T3 residue, and the same proteins treated with alkaline phosphatase. (B) The anti-pT3 antibody detects a specific signal on WT HTT EX1 Q16 over- expressed in HEK293T cells lysates, but not on the 20 KDa__ pT3 T3A mutant form by Western immunoblotting analysis. (C) Diagram illustrating the position (i)and epitopes (ii) of antibodies used in the present study. 20 KDa__ 4C9 (D) Strategy adopted for the development of sand- wich assays specific for total HTT and pT3 HTT, employing antibody MW1 as a capture antibody for both HTT forms. of the N-term region of HTT (23–25). Interestingly, regions synthetic HTT exon 1 proteins bearing a bona-fide pT3 modifi- flanking the polyQ domain, including the first 17 N-terminal cation (35) in both WT and mutant forms, as well as a amino acids of HTT (N17) and a polyproline-rich C-terminal to corresponding anti-pT3 HTT antibody, which we previously the polyQ region, have been shown to influence the propen- characterized (35, 40). Importantly, these pg/mL assays un- sity of short N-term HTT fragments to misfold and aggregate covered a strong effect of polyQ expansion on pT3 HTT levels in (26–30). Recent studies demonstrated that phosphomimetic mutant HTT in HD cells, HD mice, and HD patients and in- mutations at specific residues (S13/S16) within the N17 region dicate that the presence of a mutant polyQ results in greatly can modulate the subcellular localization, stability, aggregation, decreased immunoreactive T3 phosphorylation on HTT. Mech- and toxicity properties of mutant HTT in different preclinical anistically, using semisynthetic HTT exon 1 (HTT EX1) proteins, models (29, 31–33), raising interest in these PTMs as possible we provide evidence that phosphorylation on HTT T3 can in- modifiers of mutant HTT biological and biophysical proper- fluence the conformation and decrease the aggregation proper- ties.