Harnessing chaperone-mediated autophagy for the selective degradation of mutant huntingtin protein

PO Bauer, A Goswami, HK Wong, M Okuno… - Nature …, 2010 - nature.com
PO Bauer, A Goswami, HK Wong, M Okuno, M Kurosawa, M Yamada, H Miyazaki…
Nature biotechnology, 2010nature.com
Huntington's Disease (HD) is a dominantly inherited pathology caused by the accumulation
of mutant huntingtin protein (HTT) containing an expanded polyglutamine (polyQ) tract. As
the polyglutamine binding peptide 1 (QBP1) is known to bind an expanded polyQ tract but
not the polyQ motif found in normal HTT, we selectively targeted mutant HTT for degradation
by expressing a fusion molecule comprising two copies of QBP1 and copies of two different
heat shock cognate protein 70 (HSC70)–binding motifs in cellular and mouse models of HD …
Abstract
Huntington's Disease (HD) is a dominantly inherited pathology caused by the accumulation of mutant huntingtin protein (HTT) containing an expanded polyglutamine (polyQ) tract. As the polyglutamine binding peptide 1 (QBP1) is known to bind an expanded polyQ tract but not the polyQ motif found in normal HTT, we selectively targeted mutant HTT for degradation by expressing a fusion molecule comprising two copies of QBP1 and copies of two different heat shock cognate protein 70 (HSC70)–binding motifs in cellular and mouse models of HD. Chaperone-mediated autophagy contributed to the specific degradation of mutant HTT in cultured cells expressing the construct. Intrastriatal delivery of a virus expressing the fusion molecule ameliorated the disease phenotype in the R6/2 mouse model of HD. Similar adaptor molecules comprising HSC70–binding motifs fused to an appropriate structure-specific binding agent(s) may have therapeutic potential for treating diseases caused by misfolded proteins other than those with expanded polyQ tracts.
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