SHMT2 deficiency disrupts transcriptional regulation through homocysteine-mediated suppression of histone lactylation in Huntington’s disease models

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Abstract

Huntington’s disease (HD) is a fatal neurodegenerative disorder characterized by progressive motor dysfunction, cognitive decline, and striatal neuron degeneration, primarily affecting medium spiny neurons (MSNs). Despite extensive research, the underlying metabolic vulnerabilities contributing to HD pathogenesis remain poorly understood. In this study, we employ RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) and metabolomics analyses to identify marked dysregulation of one-carbon metabolism in HD. We validate that SHMT2, a key mitochondrial enzyme in the mitochondrial one-carbon (mt-1C) pathway, is substantially downregulated in HD patient-derived iPSC-differentiated human striatal organoids (hSOs) and YAC128 mice. Functionally, pharmacological inhibition or genetic deletion of SHMT2 exacerbates mutant huntingtin (mHTT) aggregation, induces MSN degeneration in hSOs, and impairs motor function in WT mice. Conversely, SHMT2 overexpression attenuates MSN degeneration in HD-hSOs and improves motor performance in YAC128 mice. Mechanistically, SHMT2 deficiency leads to homocysteine (HCY) accumulation, which interacts with AARS1 and suppresses histone lactylation, thereby perturbing transcriptional regulation and associating with neurodegenerative phenotypes. Finally, we demonstrate that the HD clinical drug haloperidol modulates SHMT2 expression and restores histone lactylation, providing a pharmacological tool to probe SHMT2-dependent metabolic and epigenetic regulation in HD models. These findings highlight a metabolic-epigenetic axis as a promising therapeutic target for HD.

Authors

Mingqin Lu, Kexin Li, Shanshan Wu, Zhilong Zheng, Xinyue Li, Shengda Wang, Hanwen Yu, Chunyue Liu, Yueqing Jiang, Xueqin Song, Yan Liu, Xing Guo