Publication Date:
2022-05-26
Description:
Author Posting. © American Society for Clinical Investigation, 2013. This article is posted here by permission of American Society for Clinical Investigation for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of Clinical Investigation 123 (2013): 1964–1975, doi:10.1172/JCI66387.
Description:
Giant axonal neuropathy (GAN) is an early-onset neurological disorder caused by mutations in the GAN gene (encoding for gigaxonin), which is predicted to be an E3 ligase adaptor. In GAN, aggregates of intermediate filaments (IFs) represent the main pathological feature detected in neurons and other cell types, including patients’ dermal fibroblasts. The molecular mechanism by which these mutations cause IFs to aggregate is unknown. Using fibroblasts from patients and normal individuals, as well as Gan–/– mice, we demonstrated that gigaxonin was responsible for the degradation of vimentin IFs. Gigaxonin was similarly involved in the degradation of peripherin and neurofilament IF proteins in neurons. Furthermore, proteasome inhibition by MG-132 reversed the clearance of IF proteins in cells overexpressing gigaxonin, demonstrating the involvement of the proteasomal degradation pathway. Together, these findings identify gigaxonin as a major factor in the degradation of cytoskeletal IFs and provide an explanation for IF aggregate accumulation, the subcellular hallmark of this devastating human disease.
Description:
This work was
supported by NIH grants 1P01GM096971 (to R.D. Goldman) and
R01 NS062051 (to P. Opal) and a grant from Hannah’s Hope Fund
(to R.D. Goldman and P. Opal).
Repository Name:
Woods Hole Open Access Server
Type:
Article
Format:
application/pdf
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