Impairment of lysosomal quality control in Huntington disease

TL;DR

This study shows that Huntington disease causes lysosome dysfunction by trapping key proteins in harmful aggregates, leading to cell damage.

Contribution

The study reveals that TFEB and TFE3 are sequestered by mutant Huntingtin, impairing lysosome quality control and contributing to HD progression.

Findings

TFEB and TFE3 are trapped in mutant Huntingtin aggregates in HD models.

Reduced TFEB/TFE3 activity prevents lysophagy and leads to damaged lysosome accumulation.

Overexpression of TFEB and TFE3 reduces mutant Huntingtin aggregates and lysosomal damage.

Abstract

Huntington disease (HD) is a neurodegenerative disease caused by a polyglutamine expansion (polyQ) in the Huntingtin protein (muHTT), which makes it prone to misfolding and aggregation. muHTT aggregates sequester a wide variety of proteins essential for cell homeostasis, including chaperones and transcription factors, and their depletion may contribute to HD pathogenesis. Lysosomes are the main hubs for degradative and signaling activities in cells, and their functionality is crucial for cell homeostasis, especially for neurons. Different forms of cellular stresses, including proteotoxic stresses, can alter lysosome integrity and induce lysosomal membrane permeabilization (LMP). Damaged lysosomes are recognized by galectins, in particular galectin-3 (LGALS3) with activation of the lysosome quality control (LQC) system responsible for repairing, degrading, or replacing leaky lysosomes. The system is transcriptionally regulated by the transcription factors EB and E3 (TFEB and TFE3, respectively). Using HD mouse and cell models, we demonstrated that TFEB and TFE3 are sequestered in muHTT aggregates, and muHTT proteins associates with LMP triggering the translocation of LGALS3 to the lumen of lysosomes, with a close relation between polyQ size and severity of these events. Moreover, we demonstrated that TFEB and TFE3 silencing or overexpression modulate muHTT aggregation. TFEB and TFE3 knockdown worsens muHTT aggregation, while their overexpression reduces muHTT inclusions and concurrently reduces LGALS3 accumulation via lysophagy and lysosome replacement. Our findings suggest that both TFEB and TFE3 are implicated in HD, and their sequestration in muHTT inclusions increase the vulnerability of neurons to lysosome injury, altering LQC and contributing to disease pathogenesis.

In physiologial conditions, lysosome membrane permeabilization occurs and activates TFEB and TFE3 triggering a response to induce lysophagy and lysosome biogenesis. In HD, muHTT sequesters TFEB and TFE3 into inclusions and the reduced TFEB/TFE3 bioavailability prevents the activation of lysophagy and leading to the accumulation of damaged lysosomes. Created in BioRender.

In physiologial conditions, lysosome membrane permeabilization occurs and activates TFEB and TFE3 triggering a response to induce lysophagy and lysosome biogenesis. In HD, muHTT sequesters TFEB and TFE3 into inclusions and the reduced TFEB/TFE3 bioavailability prevents the activation of lysophagy and leading to the accumulation of damaged lysosomes. Created in BioRender.

Figures