自噬在发育及干细胞中的作用

自噬是亚细胞膜结构发生动态变化并经溶酶体介导的细胞内蛋白质和细胞器降解的过程。通过平衡细胞内的合成和分解代谢,自噬可以维持细胞内环境稳态。干细胞是具有自我更新能力和多向分化潜能的细胞,对组织器官再生和维持组织稳态有重要作用。近年的研究表明,自噬在维持干细胞功能方面有非常重要的作用,本文综述了自噬的形成过程和分子机制及其在发育及干细胞中的作用。     

细胞自噬进程的分子信号通路研究进展

细胞自噬是广泛存在于真核细胞内的一种胞内物质降解途径。细胞内的待降解蛋白复合物、受损伤细胞器以及入侵的病原体等被自噬泡包裹后运送至溶酶体,然后被溶酶体酸性水解酶消化,并释放到胞浆中以维持细胞的自我稳态。随着2016年诺贝尔生理医学奖授予自噬研究领域的学者,自噬研究越来越受到科研人员的重视。本文整理总结了自噬进程中的自噬信号调节、自噬体以及自噬溶酶体形成过程,同时也讨论了自噬过程中相关的分子信号通路。     

溶酶体生成的调控机制研究进展

自噬体和溶酶体是细胞维持稳态的重要系统,自噬体负责底物的识别和包裹,溶酶体负责底物的降解。溶酶体功能紊乱会导致细胞内物质不能被正常降解、致病性底物发生蓄积,进而诱发多种重大疾病,如溶酶体蓄积病(lysosomal storage disorders, LSDs)、神经退行性疾病和代谢性疾病等;相反,促进溶酶体生成,增强其降解功能则具有改善疾病的作用。因此,揭示并阐明溶酶体生成的调控机制是重要的科学问题。本文对溶酶体生成调控领域近年的研究进展进行综述。     

自噬在细胞存活和死亡中的作用

自噬是亚细胞膜结构发生动态变化并经溶酶体介导对细胞内蛋白质和细胞器降解的过程.通过平衡细胞合成和分解代谢,自噬稳定细胞内环境,维持细胞的存活.然而,过度自噬可导致细胞发生Ⅱ型程序性细胞死亡.自噬与凋亡在细胞死亡过程中的关系十分密切.本文对自噬的过程及其在细胞存活和死亡中的作用作一综述.     

分子伴侣介导的细胞自噬作用机制及其功能

分子伴侣介导的细胞自噬(chaperone-mediated autophagy,CMA)是通过溶酶体途径选择性降解胞质中带KFERQ-序列的蛋白质。CMA不仅为细胞在持久饥饿状态下提供能量,还在氧化性损伤保护、维持细胞内环境稳态等方面发挥作用。此外,CMA功能障碍还与某些疾病的发生有关。该文简要综述了这方面的研究进展。     

细胞自噬与神经退行性疾病

细胞自噬是一条依赖溶酶体降解的途径,它对于清除细胞质内蛋白质聚集体、损伤的细胞器,维持细胞内稳态等具有重要的生理功能。神经退行性疾病是一类由于突变蛋白质在神经细胞中堆积而引起的神经系统失调症。细胞自噬是清除胞质内蛋白质聚集体的重要途径,利用提高细胞自噬能力对神经退行性疾病进行治疗具有光明前景。简要介绍了细胞自噬的机制及细胞自噬与神经退行性疾病之间的关系。     

自噬对间充质干细胞的生物学作用研究进展

自噬是细胞器或蛋白质受损、变性、衰老时,通过溶酶体途径运输到溶酶体区进行降解、循环与再利用的生物学过程。作为主要的细胞内降解和循环途径,自噬在正常细胞和组织发育过程中对于维持和重塑细胞稳态至关重要。间充质干细胞(MSCs)是一种具有自我更新能力的多能祖细胞,并可以分化成新的组织,因而在再生医学中具有一定的应用潜能,且在多种退行性疾病的生物学治疗中显示出重要效果。自噬可以影响MSCs的干性维持及干细胞的分化。本文就自噬对MSCs的生物学作用研究进展进行综述。     

自噬对胞内感染病原体的双重作用

自噬(autophagy)是细胞维持稳态的一种机制[1,2].在自噬发生过程中,来源不明的单层膜凹陷形成杯状双层膜的结构,包裹细胞质和细胞器部分,形成有双层膜的自噬体(autophagosome).自噬体随之与溶酶体融合形成自噬溶酶体,其中的细胞物质被溶酶体酶降解,降解后产生的氨基酸可以被细胞重新利用,参与物质的再循环.     

自噬和铁死亡的相互联系

自噬是一个保守的细胞内降解系统,在细胞死亡中起着双重作用,可以为细胞在营养缺乏条件下提供一些必要的营养物质促进细胞存活,但是自噬过度发生会导致细胞内一些正常组分被降解从而加速细胞死亡。铁死亡是一种新的细胞死亡调控形式,主要依赖于铁的积累和脂质过氧化。铁死亡在细胞形态、生物化学特征和所涉及的调控因子上都与自噬以及其他类型的细胞死亡方式不同。然而,最近的研究表明,铁死亡的发生依赖于自噬,并且许多铁死亡调节因子被认为是潜在的自噬调节因子。该文主要对自噬和铁死亡相互联系的分子机制进行综述。     

自噬及其在肺部疾病中作用研究进展

自噬作为一种新的细胞程序化死亡方式,在维持细胞内环境稳态中起着重要作用。它由溶酶体介导,对细胞内衰老细胞器或受损蛋白质进行再次利用,以补充细胞在"饥饿"状态下的物质供给。自噬曾被认为是细胞对氧化应激的随机自我保护性反应,然而最近研究发现自噬体的形成具有选择性和高度保守性的特点。目前研究发现自噬在COPD、肺气肿、肺纤维化、肺动脉高压、急性肺损伤、肺肿瘤等肺部疾病中起重要作用。本文通过分析总结自噬信号传导机制及其在肺部疾病中的相关作用,以阐明肺部疾病的可能发生机制,从而指导相关疾病的临床治疗。     

Autophagy promotes ferroptosis by degradation of ferritin

Macroautophagy/autophagy is an evolutionarily conserved degradation pathway that maintains homeostasis. Ferroptosis, a novel form of regulated cell death, is characterized by a production of reactive oxygen species from accumulated iron and lipid peroxidation. However, the relationship between autophagy and ferroptosis at the genetic level remains unclear. Here, we demonstrated that autophagy contributes to ferroptosis by degradation of ferritin in fibroblasts and cancer cells. Knockout or knockdown of Atg5 (autophagy-related 5) and Atg7 limited erastin-induced ferroptosis with decreased intracellular ferrous iron levels, and lipid peroxidation. Remarkably, NCOA4 (nuclear receptor coactivator 4) was a selective cargo receptor for the selective autophagic turnover of ferritin (namely ferritinophagy) in ferroptosis. Consistently, genetic inhibition of NCOA4 inhibited ferritin degradation and suppressed ferroptosis. In contrast, overexpression of NCOA4 increased ferritin degradation and promoted ferroptosis. These findings provide novel insight into the interplay between autophagy and regulated cell death.     

Ferroptosis: Role of lipid peroxidation,iron and ferritinophagy

Ferroptosis is a form of regulated cell death that is dependent on iron and reactive oxygen species (ROS) and is characterized by lipid peroxidation. It is morphologically and biochemically distinct and disparate from other processes of cell death. As ferroptosis is induced by inhibition of cysteine uptake or inactivation of the lipid repair enzyme glutathione peroxidase 4 (GPX4), the process is favored by chemical or mutational inhibition of the cystine/glutamate antiporter and culminates in the accumulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in the form of lipid hydroperoxides. Excessive lipid peroxidation leads to death by ferroptosis and the phenotype is accentuated respectively by the repletion and depletion of iron and glutathione in cells. Furthermore, oxidized phosphatidylethanolamines (PE) harbouring arachidonoyl (AA) and adrenoyl moieties (AdA) have been shown as proximate executioners of ferroptosis. Induction of ferroptosis due to cysteine depletion leads to the degradation of ferritin (i.e. ferritinophagy), which releases iron via the NCOA4-mediated autophagy pathway. Evidence of the manifestation of ferroptosis in vivo in iron overload mice mutants is emerging. Thus, a concerted synchronization of iron availability, ROS generation, glutamate excess and cysteine deficit leads to ferroptosis. A number of questions on the molecular mechanisms of some features of ferroptosis are highlighted as subjects for future investigations.     

Ferritinophagy is Involved in Experimental Subarachnoid Hemorrhage-Induced Neuronal Ferroptosis

Ferroptosis is a novel form of regulated cell death involved in the pathophysiological process of experimental subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH), but how neuronal ferroptosis occurs remains unknown. In this study, we report that SAH-induced ferroptosis is macroautophagy/autophagy dependent because the inhibition of autophagy by knocking out autophagy-related gene 5 (ATG5) apparently mitigated SAH-induced ferroptosis. We created an experimental SAH model in Sprague–Dawley rats to determine the possible mechanism. We found that SAH can trigger neuronal ferroptosis, as evidenced by the disruption of iron homeostasis, elevation of intracellular lipid peroxidation (LPO) and decreased expression of ferroptosis–protective proteins. Then, we inhibited autophagy by ATG5 gene knockout, showing that autophagy inhibition can reduce the intracellular iron level and LPO, improve the expression of ferroptosis–protective proteins, and subsequently alleviate SAH-induced cell death. Additionally, autophagy inhibition also attenuated SAH prognostic indicators, such as brain edema, blood–brain barrier permeability, and neurological deficits. These findings not only present an opinion that SAH triggers neuronal ferroptosis via activation of ferritinophagy but also indicate that regulating ferritinophagy and maintaining iron homeostasis could provide clues for the prevention of early brain injury.

     

Ferritinophagy drives uropathogenic Escherichia coli persistence in bladder epithelial cells

Autophagy is a cellular recycling pathway, which in many cases, protects host cells from infections by degrading pathogens. However, uropathogenic Escherichia coli (UPEC), the predominant cause of urinary tract infections (UTIs), persist within the urinary tract epithelium (urothelium) by forming reservoirs within autophagosomes. Iron is a critical nutrient for both host and pathogen, and regulation of iron availability is a key host defense against pathogens. Iron homeostasis depends on the shuttling of iron-bound ferritin to the lysosome for recycling, a process termed ferritinophagy (a form of selective autophagy). Here, we demonstrate for the first time that UPEC shuttles with ferritin-bound iron into the autophagosomal and lysosomal compartments within the urothelium. Iron overload in urothelial cells induces ferritinophagy in an NCOA4-dependent manner causing increased iron availability for UPEC, triggering bacterial overproliferation and host cell death. Addition of even moderate levels of iron is sufficient to increase and prolong bacterial burden. Furthermore, we show that lysosomal damage due to iron overload is the specific mechanism causing host cell death. Significantly, we demonstrate that host cell death and bacterial burden can be reversed by inhibition of autophagy or inhibition of iron-regulatory proteins, or chelation of iron. Together, our findings suggest that UPEC persist in host cells by taking advantage of ferritinophagy. Thus, modulation of iron levels in the bladder may provide a therapeutic avenue to controlling UPEC persistence, epithelial cell death, and recurrent UTIs.     

Cellular degradation systems in ferroptosis

In eukaryotic cells, macromolecular homeostasis requires selective degradation of damaged units by the ubiquitin-proteasome system (UPS) and autophagy. Thus, dysfunctional degradation systems contribute to multiple pathological processes. Ferroptosis is a type of iron-dependent oxidative cell death driven by lipid peroxidation. Various antioxidant systems, especially the system xc⁻-glutathione-GPX4 axis, play a significant role in preventing lipid peroxidation-mediated ferroptosis. The endosomal sorting complex required for transport-III (ESCRT-III)–dependent membrane fission machinery counteracts ferroptosis by repairing membrane damage. Moreover, cellular degradation systems play a dual role in regulating the ferroptotic response, depending on the cargo they degrade. The key ferroptosis repressors, such as SLC7A11 and GPX4, are degraded by the UPS. In contrast, the overactivation of selective autophagy, including ferritinophagy, lipophagy, clockophagy and chaperone-mediated autophagy, promotes ferroptotic death by degrading ferritin, lipid droplets, circadian proteins, and GPX4, respectively. Autophagy modulators (e.g., BECN1, STING1/TMEM173, CTSB, HMGB1, PEBP1, MTOR, AMPK, and DUSP1) also determine the ferroptotic response in a context-dependent manner. In this review, we provide an updated overview of the signals and mechanisms of the degradation system regulating ferroptosis, opening new horizons for disease treatment strategies.Subject terms: Cell biology, Molecular biology     

Identifying specific receptors for cargo-mediated autophagy

Macroautophagy has been implicated in numerous diseases, yet our understanding of the proteins responsible for the turnover of specific cargo by autophagy is limited. In a recent paper published in Nature, Mancias et al. used quantitative proteomics to identify a cohort of autophagosome-enriched proteins, one of which, nuclear receptor coactivator 4 (NCOA4) was shown to be required for the selective delivery of ferritin to the lysosome, ultimately regulating intracellular iron by autophagic turnover of ferritin, or ferritinophagy.Autophagy is a cell survival process whereby double-membrane structures, autophagosomes, sequester bulk cytoplasm, damaged proteins, and organelles for delivery to the lysosome and turnover to maintain homeostasis. Autophagosomes are identified by ATG8 proteins (in mammalian cells these are LC3 and its family members) that have been shown to recruit selective receptors that deliver specific cargos for degradation; however, the full range of cargo proteins and their related receptor proteins are still largely unknown¹. Understanding which proteins are responsible for specific cargo degradation is needed to clarify the complicated roles of autophagy in human diseases, for example, to explain the dual roles that autophagy is thought to play in tumor suppression or in the survival and growth of tumors².A recent study from the Kimmelman and Harper labs has taken a crucial first step in robustly identifying proteins that are associated with autophagosomes and their turnover³. Although previous studies have identified proteins in autophagosome preparations, these studies had limitations and low protein overlap with one another^4,5,6. Most importantly, because autophagy non-selectively degrades cytosolic proteins as well as selectively targets specific cargos, the previous studies were bedeviled by the problem that many proteins targeted to autophagosomes might simply have been material whose likelihood of being in the autophagosome is not regulated but instead related to their overall abundance. In this paper, proteomics using stable isotope labeling by amino acids in cell culture (SILAC) was paired with a density gradient separation protocol for autophagosomes and a clever refinement where “hits” were filtered based on their abundance in the total proteome. This allows for a powerful association of proteins that are specific to autophagosomes. In addition, use of multiple human cell lines with differing reliance on autophagy (PANC-1, PA-TU-8988T, and MCF7) helped to strengthen the protein associations in regards to autophagy.Identification of specific autophagy-related proteins was achieved through the treatment of light isotope-labeled cells with wortmannin, a phosphoinositide 3-kinase inhibitor that prevents autophagosome formation, and heavy isotope-labeled cells treated with chloroquine, a lysosomal inhibitor to prevent autophagosome degradation and increase numbers. Autophagosomes were then isolated from the differentially labeled isotope samples which allowed for the identification of specific autophagy proteins (heavy) from those proteins that were isolated at the same density upon gradient centrifugation (light) (Figure 1A). A total of 50 high-stringency proteins were selected based on an equal or greater than one log₂ increase in the heavy:light ratio, protein overlaps between cell replicates, and protein overlap between the different cell types utilized. Several known autophagy proteins and cargo receptor proteins were identified, as well as plasma membrane and endocytosis-related proteins, which is consistent with previous findings and the intermixing of membranes during autophagosome maturation. Of the proteins not previously shown to associate with autophagy, NCOA4 was the highest and most consistently enriched protein identified. NCOA4 had previously been suggested to interact with androgen receptor^7,8; however, the new study describes an unrecognized role of NCOA4 as a specific cargo receptor for autophagy, which interacts with LC3 proteins to deliver selective cargo to the autophagosome. For example, characterization of GFP-labeled NCOA4 showed puncta accumulation that tended to localize with LC3B-positive puncta in response to chloroquine treatment.Open in a separate windowFigure 1Identification of autophagy-associated proteins and protein interaction of top HCIP: NCOA4. (A) Workflow of autophagy-associated protein identification. (B) Different complex interactions of NCOA4 with HERC2, NEURL4, and the ferritin complex. Arrows depict the directionality of interaction with line weight indicating the weighted and normalized D score (WDN). Dotted lines represent data from the STRING database. Numbers in parentheses are the log₂(H:L) ratio obtained from A.Further experiments were performed to understand how NCOA4 functions as a selective autophagy cargo receptor. Affinity purification-mass spectrometry was used to identify high-confidence interacting proteins (HCIP) associating with NCOA4. Among the HCIPs identified, ferritin heavy chain (FTH1), ferritin light chain (FTL), HERC2, and NEURL4 were verified to associate with NCOA4 by immunopreciptation followed by immunoblotting. As HERC2 and NEURL4 are not found in the autophagosome fraction and do not associate with ferritin immune complexes, it is believed that NCOA4 creates separate distinct complexes with ferritin and HERC2-NEURL4 (Figure 1B). This result indicates a further level of control whereby NCOA4 does not just deliver everything that it binds to the autophagosome. Instead, NCOA4 must have some mechanism by which it “knows” to only deliver cargo such as ferritin to the autophagosome.In previous studies, it was shown that ferritin can concentrate in the lysosome and upon iron chelation, ferritin is transported to the lysosome for degradation^9,10, thus allowing release of iron to the cell. Here co-localization of NCOA4, LC3B, and ferritin into puncta was shown to occur upon stimulation of ferritin expression with ferric ammonium citrate, reflecting the targeting of ferritin into autophagosomes for degradation through the lysosome. This process has been termed “ferritinophagy” by the authors. It was confirmed that NCOA4 and autophagy play a central role in ferritin degradation by the prevention of ferritin turnover through genetic inhibition of either ATG5 or NCOA4 by RNA interference (RNAi). On the other hand, RNAi against HERC2 did not prevent ferritin turnover, further confirming that the separate, apparently autophagy-independent complex NCOA4 forms with HERC2 that has no relationship to the turnover of ferritin. This provides a molecular explanation for how bioavailability of iron is controlled – when iron is needed, ferritin is shuttled to the autophagosome by NCOA4 and degraded, allowing release of iron to the cytoplasm.In summary, this study describes not only a comprehensive technique to identify autophagy-specific cargo proteins and a valuable list of autophagosome-associated proteins that the autophagy research community can start to mine, but also the first mechanistic understanding of ferritin degradation through autophagy. More generally, the study reveals an example of how sophisticated proteomic analysis can provide a much needed understanding of how particular proteins, organelles, and nutrients are turned over through autophagy, ultimately identifying targets for therapeutically directed strategies designed to manipulate these mechanisms in disease processes.     

Ceruloplasmin suppresses ferroptosis by regulating iron homeostasis in hepatocellular carcinoma cells

Ferroptosis is a regulated form of cell death characterized by the iron-dependent accumulation of lipid hydroperoxides. Ceruloplasmin (CP) is a glycoprotein that plays an essential role in iron homeostasis. However, whether CP regulates ferroptosis has not been reported. Here, we show that CP suppresses ferroptosis by regulating iron homeostasis in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) cells. Depletion of CP promoted erastin- and RSL3-induced ferroptotic cell death and resulted in the accumulation of intracellular ferrous iron (Fe²⁺) and lipid reactive oxygen species (ROS). Moreover, overexpression of CP suppressed erastin- and RSL3-induced ferroptosis in HCC cells. In addition, a novel frameshift mutation (c.1192-1196del, p.leu398serfs) of CP gene newly identified in patients with iron accumulation and neurodegenerative diseases lost its ability to regulate iron homeostasis and thus failed to participate in the regulation of ferroptosis. Collectively, these data suggest that CP plays an indispensable role in ferroptosis by regulating iron metabolism and indicate a potential therapeutic approach for hepatocellular carcinoma.     

Oxidative modification of ferritin induced by hydrogen peroxide

Excess free iron generates oxidative stress that may contribute to the pathogenesis of various causes of neurodegenerative diseases. In this study, we assessed the modification of ferritin induced by H(2)O(2). When ferritin was incubated with H(2)O(2), the degradation of ferritin L-chain increased with the H(2)O(2) concentration whereas ferritin H-chain was remained. Free radical scavengers, azide, thiourea, and N-acetyl-(L)-cysteine suppressed the H(2)O(2)-mediated ferritin modification. The iron specific chelator, deferoxamine, effectively prevented H(2)O(2)-mediated ferritin degradation in modified ferritin. The release of iron ions from ferritin was increased in H(2)O(2) concentration-dependent manner. The present results suggest that free radicals may play a role in the modification and iron releasing of ferritin by H(2)O(2). It is assumed that oxidative damage of ferritin by H(2)O(2) may induce the increase of iron content in cells and subsequently lead to the deleterious condition.