Mutant γPKC that causes spinocerebellar ataxia type 14 upregulates Hsp70, which protects cells from the mutant's cytotoxicity.

Several missense mutations in the protein kinase Cγ (γPKC) gene have been found to cause spinocerebellar ataxia type 14 (SCA14), an autosomal dominant neurodegenerative disease. We previously demonstrated that the mutant γPKC found in SCA14 is misfolded, susceptible to aggregation and cytotoxic. Molecular chaperones assist the refolding and degradation of misfolded proteins and prevention of the proteins' aggregation.

Establishment of a novel fluorescence-based method to evaluate chaperone-mediated autophagy in a single neuron.

Background: Chaperone-mediated autophagy (CMA) is a selective autophagy-lysosome protein degradation pathway. The role of CMA in normal neuronal functions and in neural disease pathogenesis remains unclear, in part because there is no available method to monitor CMA activity at the single-cell level.

Methodology/principal Findings: We sought to establish a single-cell monitoring method by visualizing translocation of CMA substrates from the cytosol to lysosomes using the HaloTag (HT) system.

Congo red, an amyloid-inhibiting compound, alleviates various types of cellular dysfunction triggered by mutant protein kinase cγ that causes spinocerebellar ataxia type 14 (SCA14) by inhibiting oligomerization and aggregation.

Several missense mutations in the protein kinase Cγ (γPKC) gene have been found to cause spinocerebellar ataxia type 14 (SCA14), an autosomal dominant neurodegenerative disease. We previously demonstrated that the mutant γPKC found in SCA14 is susceptible to aggregation that induces apoptotic cell death. Congo red is widely used as a histological dye for amyloid detection.