Neuroscience Paris Seine, Institut de Biologie Paris-Seine, CNRS UMR 8246/INSERM U1130., Sorbonne Université, Paris, France.
LBM, CNRS UMR7203/INSERM U1157, Sorbonne Université, Faculté de Médecine, AP-HP, Hôpital Saint Antoine, Département PM2, Paris, France.
Brain. 2019 Aug 1;142(8):2432-2450. doi: 10.1093/brain/awz174.
Dysfunctions in brain cholesterol homeostasis have been extensively related to brain disorders. The main pathway for brain cholesterol elimination is its hydroxylation into 24S-hydroxycholesterol by the cholesterol 24-hydrolase, CYP46A1. Increasing evidence suggests that CYP46A1 has a role in the pathogenesis and progression of neurodegenerative disorders, and that increasing its levels in the brain is neuroprotective. However, the mechanisms underlying this neuroprotection remain to be fully understood. Huntington's disease is a fatal autosomal dominant neurodegenerative disease caused by an abnormal CAG expansion in huntingtin's gene. Among the multiple cellular and molecular dysfunctions caused by this mutation, altered brain cholesterol homeostasis has been described in patients and animal models as a critical event in Huntington's disease. Here, we demonstrate that a gene therapy approach based on the delivery of CYP46A1, the rate-limiting enzyme for cholesterol degradation in the brain, has a long-lasting neuroprotective effect in Huntington's disease and counteracts multiple detrimental effects of the mutated huntingtin. In zQ175 Huntington's disease knock-in mice, CYP46A1 prevented neuronal dysfunctions and restored cholesterol homeostasis. These events were associated to a specific striatal transcriptomic signature that compensates for multiple mHTT-induced dysfunctions. We thus explored the mechanisms for these compensations and showed an improvement of synaptic activity and connectivity along with the stimulation of the proteasome and autophagy machineries, which participate to the clearance of mutant huntingtin (mHTT) aggregates. Furthermore, BDNF vesicle axonal transport and TrkB endosome trafficking were restored in a cellular model of Huntington's disease. These results highlight the large-scale beneficial effect of restoring cholesterol homeostasis in neurodegenerative diseases and give new opportunities for developing innovative disease-modifying strategies in Huntington's disease.
脑胆固醇稳态失调与脑疾病广泛相关。脑胆固醇消除的主要途径是其被胆固醇 24-羟化酶 CYP46A1 羟化为 24S-羟基胆固醇。越来越多的证据表明,CYP46A1 在神经退行性疾病的发病机制和进展中起作用,并且增加脑中的 CYP46A1 水平具有神经保护作用。然而,这种神经保护的机制仍有待充分理解。亨廷顿病是一种致命的常染色体显性神经退行性疾病,由亨廷顿基因中的异常 CAG 扩展引起。在这种突变引起的多种细胞和分子功能障碍中,改变的脑胆固醇稳态已在患者和动物模型中被描述为亨廷顿病的一个关键事件。在这里,我们证明了基于 CYP46A1 传递的基因治疗方法,CYP46A1 是脑内胆固醇降解的限速酶,对亨廷顿病具有持久的神经保护作用,并对抗突变型亨廷顿蛋白的多种有害影响。在 zQ175 亨廷顿病敲入小鼠中,CYP46A1 可预防神经元功能障碍并恢复胆固醇稳态。这些事件与特定的纹状体转录组特征相关,该特征补偿了多个 mHTT 诱导的功能障碍。因此,我们探索了这些补偿的机制,并显示了突触活性和连接性的改善,以及蛋白酶体和自噬机制的刺激,这些机制参与清除突变型亨廷顿蛋白 (mHTT) 聚集体。此外,BDNF 囊泡轴突运输和 TrkB 内体运输在亨廷顿病的细胞模型中得到恢复。这些结果强调了在神经退行性疾病中恢复胆固醇稳态的广泛有益作用,并为开发亨廷顿病的创新疾病修饰策略提供了新的机会。