Frataxin deficiency induces Schwann cell inflammation and death

Mutations in the frataxin gene cause dorsal root ganglion demyelination and neurodegeneration, which leads to Friedreich's ataxia. However the consequences of frataxin depletion have not been measured in dorsal root ganglia or Schwann cells. We knocked down frataxin in several neural cell lines, including two dorsal root ganglia neural lines, 2 neuronal lines, a human oligodendroglial line (HOG) and multiple Schwann cell lines and measured cell death and proliferation. Only Schwann cells demonstrated a significant decrease in viability. In addition to the death of Schwann cells, frataxin decreased proliferation in Schwann, oligodendroglia, and slightly in one neural cell line. Thus the most severe effects of frataxin deficiency were on Schwann cells, which enwrap dorsal root ganglia neurons. Microarray of frataxin-deficient Schwann cells demonstrated strong activations of inflammatory and cell death genes including interleukin-6 and Tumor Necrosis Factor which were confirmed at the mRNA and protein levels. Frataxin knockdown in Schwann cells also specifically induced inflammatory arachidonate metabolites. Anti-inflammatory and anti-apoptotic drugs significantly rescued frataxin-dependent Schwann cell toxicity. Thus, frataxin deficiency triggers inflammatory changes and death of Schwann cells that is inhibitable by inflammatory and anti-apoptotic drugs.     

Frataxin participates to the hypoxia-induced response in tumors

Defective expression of frataxin is responsible for the degenerative disease Friedreich''s ataxia. Frataxin is a protein required for cell survival since complete knockout is lethal. Frataxin protects tumor cells against oxidative stress and apoptosis but also acts as a tumor suppressor. The molecular bases of this apparent paradox are missing. We therefore sought to investigate the pathways through which frataxin enhances stress resistance in tumor cells. We found that frataxin expression is upregulated in several tumor cell lines in response to hypoxic stress, a condition often associated with tumor progression. Moreover, frataxin upregulation in response to hypoxia is dependent on hypoxia-inducible factors expression and modulates the activation of the tumor-suppressor p53. Importantly, we show for the first time that frataxin is in fact increased in human tumors in vivo. These results show that frataxin participates to the hypoxia-induced stress response in tumors, thus implying that modulation of its expression could have a critical role in tumor cell survival and/or progression.     

A pool of extramitochondrial frataxin that promotes cell survival

Frataxin is a mitochondrial protein involved in iron metabolism. Defective expression of frataxin causes Friedreich ataxia (FA), an inherited degenerative syndrome characterized by ataxia, cardiomyopathy, and high incidence of diabetes. Here we report that frataxin-deficient cells are more prone to undergo stress-induced mitochondrial damage and apoptosis, while the overexpression of frataxin confers protection to a variety of cell types. Moreover, we reveal the existence of an extramitochondrial pool of frataxin, which can efficiently prevent mitochondrial damage and apoptosis in different cellular systems. Remarkably, extramitochondrial frataxin can fully replace mitochondrial frataxin in promoting survival of FA cells.     

The role of frataxin in fission yeast iron metabolism: Implications for Friedreich's ataxia

Background

The neurodegenerative disease Friedreich's ataxia is the result of frataxin deficiency. Frataxin is a mitochondrial protein involved in iron–sulfur cluster (Fe–S) cofactor biogenesis, but its functional role in this pathway is debated. This is due to the interconnectivity of iron metabolic and oxidative stress response pathways that make distinguishing primary effects of frataxin deficiency challenging. Since Fe–S cluster assembly is conserved, frataxin overexpression phenotypes in a simple eukaryotic organism will provide additional insight into frataxin function.

Methods

The Schizosaccharomyces pombe frataxin homologue (fxn1) was overexpressed from a plasmid under a thiamine repressible promoter. The S. pombe transformants were characterized at several expression strengths for cellular growth, mitochondrial organization, iron levels, oxidative stress, and activities of Fe–S cluster containing enzymes.

Results

Observed phenotypes were dependent on the amount of Fxn1 overexpression. High Fxn1 overexpression severely inhibited S. pombe growth, impaired mitochondrial membrane integrity and cellular respiration, and led to Fxn1 aggregation. Cellular iron accumulation was observed at moderate Fxn1 overexpression but was most pronounced at high levels of Fxn1. All levels of Fxn1 overexpression up-regulated oxidative stress defense and mitochondrial Fe–S cluster containing enzyme activities.

Conclusions

Despite the presence of oxidative stress and accumulated iron, activation of Fe–S cluster enzymes was common to all levels of Fxn1 overexpression; therefore, Fxn1 may regulate the efficiency of Fe–S cluster biogenesis in S. pombe.

General Significance

We provide evidence that suggests that dysregulated Fe–S cluster biogenesis is a primary effect of both frataxin overexpression and deficiency as in Friedreich's ataxia.     

Frataxin deficiency and mitochondrial dysfunction

Friedreich ataxia (FA) is an inherited recessive disorder characterized by progressive neurological disability and heart abnormalities. The Friedreich ataxia gene (FRDA) encodes a small mitochondrial protein, frataxin, which is produced in insufficient amounts in the disease as a consequence of a GAA triplet repeat expansion in the first intron of the gene. Frataxin deficiency leads to excessive free radical production, dysfunction of Fe-S center containing enzymes (in particular respiratory complexes I, II and III, and aconitase), and progressive iron accumulation in mitochondria. Frataxin may be a mitochondrial iron-binding protein that prevents this metal from participating in Fenton chemistry to generate toxic hydroxyl radicals. We investigated whether frataxin deficiency may in addition interfere with signaling pathways. First, we showed that exposure of FA fibroblasts to iron fails to produce the normally observed increase in expression of the stress defense protein manganese superoxide dismutase. This impaired induction involves a nuclear factor-kappaB-independent pathway that does not require free radical signaling intermediates. We also examined the role of frataxin in neuronal differentiation by using stably transfected clones of P19 embryonic carcinoma cells with antisense or sense frataxin constructs. We found that during retinoic acid-induced neurogenesis frataxin deficiency enhances apoptosis and reduces the number of terminally differentiated neuronal-like cells. The addition of the antioxidant N-acetyl-cysteine only rescues cells non-committed to the neuronal lineage, indicating that frataxin deficiency impairs differentiation mechanisms and survival responses through different mechanisms. Both studies suggest that some abnormalities in frataxin-deficient cells are related to free radical independent signaling pathways.     

Lymphoblast Oxidative Stress Genes as Potential Biomarkers of Disease Severity and Drug Effect in Friedreich's Ataxia

There is no current approved therapy for the ultimately lethal neuro- and cardio-degenerative disease Friedreich''s ataxia (FA). Finding minimally-invasive molecular biomarkers of disease progression and drug effect could support smaller, shorter clinical trials. Since we and others have noted a deficient oxidative stress response in FA, we investigated the expression of 84 genes involved in oxidative stress, signaling, and protection in control and FA lymphoblasts ranging from 460 to 1122 GAA repeats. Several antioxidant genes responded in a dose-dependent manner to frataxin expression at the mRNA and protein levels, which is inversely correlated with disease progression and severity. We tested the effect of experimental Friedreich’s ataxia therapies dimethyl fumarate (DMF) and type 1 histone deacetylase inhibitor (HDACi) on biomarker mRNA expression. We observed that exposure of lymphoblasts to DMF and HDACi dose-dependently unsilenced frataxin expression and restored the potential biomarkers NCF2 and PDLIM1 expression to control levels. We suggest that in addition to frataxin expression, blood lymphoblast levels of NCF2 and PDLIM1 could be useful biomarkers for disease progression and drug effect in future clinical trials of Friedreich’s ataxia.     

Overexpression of human and fly frataxins in Drosophila provokes deleterious effects at biochemical, physiological and developmental levels

Background

Friedreich''s ataxia (FA), the most frequent form of inherited ataxias in the Caucasian population, is caused by a reduced expression of frataxin, a highly conserved protein. Model organisms have contributed greatly in the efforts to decipher the function of frataxin; however, the precise function of this protein remains elusive. Overexpression studies are a useful approach to investigate the mechanistic actions of frataxin; however, the existing literature reports contradictory results. To further investigate the effect of frataxin overexpression, we analyzed the consequences of overexpressing human (FXN) and fly (FH) frataxins in Drosophila.

Methodology/Principal Findings

We obtained transgenic flies that overexpressed human or fly frataxins in a general pattern and in different tissues using the UAS-GAL4 system. For both frataxins, we observed deleterious effects at the biochemical, histological and behavioral levels. Oxidative stress is a relevant factor in the frataxin overexpression phenotypes. Systemic frataxin overexpression reduces Drosophila viability and impairs the normal embryonic development of muscle and the peripheral nervous system. A reduction in the level of aconitase activity and a decrease in the level of NDUF3 were also observed in the transgenic flies that overexpressed frataxin. Frataxin overexpression in the nervous system reduces life span, impairs locomotor ability and causes brain degeneration. Frataxin aggregation and a misfolding of this protein have been shown not to be the mechanism that is responsible for the phenotypes that have been observed. Nevertheless, the expression of human frataxin rescues the aconitase activity in the fh knockdown mutant.

Conclusion/Significance

Our results provide in vivo evidence of a functional equivalence for human and fly frataxins and indicate that the control of frataxin expression is important for treatments that aim to increase frataxin levels.     

Dual role of CD38 in microglial activation and activation-induced cell death

Microglia, the resident immune cells of the CNS, are normally quiescent but become activated after infection or injury. Their properties then change, and they promote both repair and damage processes. The extent of microglial activation is regulated, in part, by activation-induced cell death (AICD). Although many apoptotic aspects of the microglial AICD mechanism have been elucidated, little is known about the connection between the activation step and the death process. Using mouse primary microglial cultures, we show that the ectoenzyme CD38, via its calcium-mobilizing metabolite cyclic-ADP-ribose (cADPR), helps promote microglial activation and AICD induced by LPS plus IFN-gamma (LPS/IFN-gamma), suggesting that CD38 links the two processes. Accordingly, CD38 expression and activity, as well as the intracellular calcium concentration ([Ca2+]i) in the primary microglia were increased by LPS/IFN-gamma treatment. Moreover, CD38 deficiency or treatment with cADPR antagonists conferred partial resistance to LPS/IFN-gamma-induced AICD and also reduced [Ca2+]i. Microglial activation, indicated by induced expression of NO synthase-2 mRNA and production of NO, secretion and mRNA expression of TNF-alpha and IL-12 p40, and expression of IL-6 mRNA, was attenuated by CD38 deficiency or cADPR-antagonist treatment. The observed effects of CD38 on microglial activation are probably mediated via a cADPR-dependent increase in [Ca2+]i and the effect on AICD by regulation of NO production. Our results thus suggest that CD38 significantly affects regulation of the amount and function of activated microglia, with important consequences for injury and repair processes in the brain.     

Multiple roles for poly(ADP-ribose)polymerase-1 in neurological disease

Poly(ADP-ribose)polymerase-1 (PARP-1) is a nuclear protein activated by DNA damage. PARP-1 activation is associated in DNA repair, cell death and inflammation. Since oxidative stress induced robust DNA damage and wide spread inflammatory responses are common pathologies of various CNS diseases, the interest toward PARP-1 as a therapeutic target has peaked. This review introduces mechanism of PARP-1 activation, the role of PARP-1 in cell physiology and pathology, and discusses the potential of PARP-1 inhibition as a therapy in acute and chronic CNS diseases.     

Exploring frataxin function

Frataxin is a nuclear-encoded mitochondrial protein highly conserved in prokaryotes and eukaryotes. Its deficiency was initially described as the phenotype of Friedreich's ataxia, an autosomal recessive disease in humans. Although several functions have been described for frataxin, that is, involvement in Fe-S cluster and heme synthesis, energy conversion and oxidative phosphorylation, iron handling and response to oxidative damage, its precise function remains unclear. Although there is a general consensus on the participation of frataxin in the maintenance of cellular iron homeostasis and in iron metabolism, this protein may have other specific functions in different tissues and organisms.     

Loss of PIDD limits NF-κB activation and cytokine production but not cell survival or transformation after DNA damage

Activation of NF-κB (nuclear factor of kappa light chain gene enhancer in B cells) in response to DNA damage is considered to contribute to repair of genetic lesions, increased cell survival and cytokine release. The molecular mechanisms orchestrating this cytoplasmic event involve core components of the nuclear DNA damage response machinery, including ATM-kinase (ataxia telangiectasia mutated kinase) and PARP-1 (poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase 1). The physiological consequences of defective NF-κB activation in this context, however, remain poorly investigated. Here we report on the role of the ‘p53-induced protein with a death domain'', PIDD, which appears rate limiting in this process, as is PARP-1. Despite impaired NF-κB activation, DNA damage did not increase cell death or reduce clonal survival of various cell types lacking PIDD, such as mouse embryonic fibroblasts or stem and progenitor cells of the hematopoietic system. Furthermore, lymphomagenesis induced by γ-irradiation (IR) was unaffected by deficiency for PIDD or PARP-1, indicating that loss of DNA damage-triggered NF-κB signalling does not affect IR-driven tumorigenesis. However, loss of either gene compromised cytokine release after acute IR injury. Hence, we propose that NF-κB''s most notable function after DNA damage in primary cells is related to the release of cytokines, thereby contributing to sterile inflammation.     

Cytokine-mediated β-cell damage in PARP-1-deficient islets

Poly(ADP)-ribose polymerase (PARP) is an abundant nuclear protein that is activated by DNA damage; once active, it modifies nuclear proteins through attachment of poly(ADP)-ribose units derived from β-nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD(+)). In mice, the deletion of PARP-1 attenuates tissue injury in a number of animal models of human disease, including streptozotocin-induced diabetes. Also, inflammatory cell signaling and inflammatory gene expression are attenuated in macrophages isolated from endotoxin-treated PARP-1-deficient mice. In this study, the effects of PARP-1 deletion on cytokine-mediated β-cell damage and macrophage activation were evaluated. There are no defects in inflammatory mediator signaling or inflammatory gene expression in macrophages and islets isolated from PARP-1-deficient mice. While PARP-1 deficiency protects islets against cytokine-induced islet cell death as measured by biochemical assays of membrane polarization, the genetic absence of PARP-1 does not effect cytokine-induced inhibition of insulin secretion or cytokine-induced DNA damage in islets. While PARP-1 deficiency appears to provide protection from cell death, it fails to provide protection against the inhibitory actions of cytokines on insulin secretion or the damaging actions on islet DNA integrity.     

Frataxin and Mitochondrial FeS Cluster Biogenesis

Friedreich ataxia is an inherited neurodegenerative disease caused by frataxin deficiency. Frataxin is a conserved mitochondrial protein that plays a role in FeS cluster assembly in mitochondria. FeS clusters are modular cofactors that perform essential functions throughout the cell. They are synthesized by a multistep and multisubunit mitochondrial machinery that includes the scaffold protein Isu for assembling a protein-bound FeS cluster intermediate. Frataxin interacts with Isu, iron, and the cysteine desulfurase Nfs1, which supplies sulfide, thus placing it at the center of mitochondrial FeS cluster biosynthesis.     

Frataxin knockin mouse

Friedreich ataxia is the consequence of frataxin deficiency, most often caused by a GAA repeat expansion in intron 1 of the corresponding gene. Frataxin is a mitochondrial protein involved in iron homeostasis. As an attempt to generate a mouse model of the disease, we introduced a (GAA)(230) repeat within the mouse frataxin gene by homologous recombination. GAA repeat knockin mice were crossed with frataxin knockout mice to obtain double heterozygous mice expressing 25-36% of wild-type frataxin levels. These mice were viable and did not develop anomalies of motor coordination, iron metabolism or response to iron loading. Repeats were meiotically and mitotically stable.     

DJ-1 inhibits microglial activation and protects dopaminergic neurons in vitro and in vivo through interacting with microglial p65

Parkinson’s disease (PD), one of the most common neurodegenerative disorders, is characterized by progressive neurodegeneration of dopaminergic (DA) neurons in the substantia nigra pars compacta (SNpc). DJ-1 acts essential roles in neuronal protection and anti-neuroinflammatory response, and its loss of function is tightly associated with a familial recessive form of PD. However, the molecular mechanism of DJ-1 involved in neuroinflammation is largely unclear. Here, we found that wild-type DJ-1, rather than the pathogenic L166P mutant DJ-1, directly binds to the subunit p65 of nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB) in the cytoplasm, and loss of DJ-1 promotes p65 nuclear translocation by facilitating the dissociation between p65 and NF-κB inhibitor α (IκBα). DJ-1 knockout (DJ-1^−/−) mice exhibit more microglial activation compared with wild-type littermate controls, especially in response to lipopolysaccharide (LPS) treatment. In cellular models, knockdown of DJ-1 significantly upregulates the gene expression and increases the release of LPS-treated inflammatory cytokines in primary microglia and BV2 cells. Furthermore, DJ-1 deficiency in microglia significantly enhances the neuronal toxicity in response to LPS stimulus. In addition, pharmacological blockage of NF-κB nuclear translocation by SN-50 prevents microglial activation and alleviates the damage of DA neurons induced by microglial DJ-1 deficiency in vivo and in vitro. Thus, our data illustrate a novel mechanism by which DJ-1 facilitates the interaction between IκBα and p65 by binding to p65 in microglia, and thus repressing microglial activation and exhibiting the protection of DA neurons from neuroinflammation-mediated injury in PD.Subject terms: Cell death in the nervous system, Parkinson''s disease     

Attenuation of neointima formation through the inhibition of DNA repair enzyme PARP-1 in balloon-injured rat carotid artery

Increased oxidative stress is a major characteristic of restenosis after angioplasty. The oxidative stress is mainly created by oxidants such as reactive oxygen species (ROS), which are assumed to play an important role in neointima formation after angioplasty. DNA is a sensitive target for oxidants; however, oxidative DNA damage remains a poorly examined field in the pathogenesis of restenosis. In the present study, we demonstrated that the expression of the oxidative DNA damage marker 7,8-dihydro-8-oxo-2'-deoxyguanosine (8-oxo-dG) was quickly increased in rat carotid arteries after balloon injury. It reached its peak at 14 days after injury and still kept high expression at 28 days after injury. The immunostaining of 8-oxo-dG was present predominantly in the neointima. In response to oxidative DNA damage, the DNA repair enzyme poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase-1 (PARP-1) was significantly increased after balloon injury. The time course change and location of PARP-1 is similar to that of 8-oxo-dG. Daily injections of the PARP-1 inhibitor PJ34 (5 mg.kg(-1).day(-1) ip) attenuated neointima formation by approximately 40% at 7, 14, and 28 days after balloon injury. Treatment with PJ34 inhibited leukocyte infiltration and improved both anatomic (reendothelialization) and functional (endothelial function) recovery of endothelial cells after balloon injury. In conclusion, levels of oxidative DNA damage and the DNA repair enzyme PARP-1 are increased in vessels after balloon injury. Inhibition of PARP-1 attenuates neointima formation through inhibition of leukocyte infiltration and improvement of endothelial cell recovery after balloon injury. Targeting of the DNA repair enzyme might be a therapeutic strategy for restenosis.