Huntington's disease (HD) is caused by an expanded CAG repeat in the Huntingtin (HTT) gene. The mechanism(s) by which mutant HTT (mHTT) causes disease is unclear. Nucleocytoplasmic transport, the trafficking of macromolecules between the nucleus and cytoplasm, is tightly regulated by nuclear pore complexes (NPCs) made up of nucleoporins (NUPs). Previous studies offered clues that mHTT may disrupt nucleocytoplasmic transport and a mutation of an NUP can cause HD-like pathology. Therefore, we evaluated the NPC and nucleocytoplasmic transport in multiple models of HD, including mouse and fly models, neurons transfected with mHTT, HD iPSC-derived neurons, and human HD brain regions. These studies revealed severe mislocalization and aggregation of NUPs and defective nucleocytoplasmic transport. HD repeat-associated non-ATG (RAN) translation proteins also disrupted nucleocytoplasmic transport. Additionally, overexpression of NUPs and treatment with drugs that prevent aberrant NUP biology also mitigated this transport defect and neurotoxicity, providing future novel therapy targets.

Download full-text PDF

Source
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5595097PMC
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2017.03.023DOI Listing

Publication Analysis

Top Keywords

nucleocytoplasmic transport
20
transport
6
nucleocytoplasmic
5
mutant huntingtin
4
huntingtin disrupts
4
disrupts nuclear
4
nuclear pore
4
pore complex
4
complex huntington's
4
huntington's disease
4

Similar Publications

Endosomal Escape and Nuclear Localization: Critical Barriers for Therapeutic Nucleic Acids.

Molecules

December 2024

Department of Medical Genetics, Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB T6G 2H7, Canada.

Therapeutic nucleic acids (TNAs) including antisense oligonucleotides (ASOs) and small interfering RNA (siRNA) have emerged as promising treatment strategies for a wide variety of diseases, offering the potential to modulate gene expression with a high degree of specificity. These small, synthetic nucleic acid-like molecules provide unique advantages over traditional pharmacological agents, including the ability to target previously "undruggable" genes. Despite this promise, several biological barriers severely limit their clinical efficacy.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

CRM1 (XPO1) has been well-characterized as a shuttling receptor that mediates the export of protein and RNA cargos to the cytoplasm, and previous analyses have pinpointed several key residues (A541, F572, K568, S1055, and Q742) that modulate CRM1 export activity. CRM1 also has a less studied nuclear function in RNA biogenesis, which is reflected by its localization to the Cajal body and the nucleolus. Here, we have investigated how the mutation of these key residues affects the intranuclear localization of CRM1 and its ability to mediate export of endogenous cargos.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

ITK-SYK and TEL-SYK (also known as ETV6-SYK) are human tumor-causing chimeric proteins containing the kinase region of SYK, and the membrane-targeting, N-terminal, PH-TH domain-doublet of ITK or the dimerizing SAM-PNT domain of TEL, respectively. ITK-SYK causes peripheral T cell lymphoma, while TEL-SYK was reported in myelodysplastic syndrome. BTK is a kinase highly related to ITK and to further delineate the role of the N-terminus, we generated the corresponding fusion-kinase BTK-SYK.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

mRNA export factors store nascent transcripts within nuclear speckles as an adaptive response to transient global inhibition of transcription.

Mol Cell

January 2025

Cancer Research Division, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, Melbourne, VIC, Australia; Sir Peter MacCallum Department of Oncology, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC, Australia; Department of Haematology, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, Melbourne, VIC, Australia; Centre for Cancer Research, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC, Australia. Electronic address:

Several transcription inhibitors have been developed as cancer therapies. However, they show modest clinical activity, highlighting that our understanding of the cellular response to transcriptional inhibition remains incomplete. Here we report that potent inhibitors of transcription not only impact mRNA output but also markedly impair mRNA transcript localization and nuclear export.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Nucleus-translocated GCLM promotes chemoresistance in colorectal cancer through a moonlighting function.

Nat Commun

January 2025

Department of Medical Oncology, State Key Laboratory of Oncology in South China, Guangdong Provincial Clinical Research Center for Cancer, Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center, Guangzhou, PR China.

Metabolic enzymes perform moonlighting functions during tumor progression, including the modulation of chemoresistance. However, the underlying mechanisms of these functions remain elusive. Here, utilizing a metabolic clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)-Cas9 knockout library screen, we observe that the loss of glutamate-cysteine ligase modifier subunit (GCLM), a rate-limiting enzyme in glutathione biosynthesis, noticeably increases the sensitivity of colorectal cancer (CRC) cells to platinum-based chemotherapy.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Want AI Summaries of new PubMed Abstracts delivered to your In-box?

Enter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!