Intermediate filaments are cytoskeletal elements important for cell architecture. Recently it has been discovered that intermediate filaments are highly dynamic and that they are fundamental for organelle positioning, transport and function thus being an important regulatory component of membrane traffic. We have identified, using the yeast two-hybrid system, vimentin, a class III intermediate filament protein, as a Rab7a interacting protein. Rab7a is a member of the Rab family of small GTPases and it controls vesicular membrane traffic to late endosomes and lysosomes. In addition, Rab7a is important for maturation of phagosomes and autophagic vacuoles. We confirmed the interaction in HeLa cells by co-immunoprecipitation and pull-down experiments, and established that the interaction is direct using bacterially expressed recombinant proteins. Immunofluorescence analysis on HeLa cells indicate that Rab7a-positive vesicles sometimes overlap with vimentin filaments. Overexpression of Rab7a causes an increase in vimentin phosphorylation at different sites and causes redistribution of vimentin in the soluble fraction. Consistently, Rab7a silencing causes an increase of vimentin present in the insoluble fraction (assembled). Also, expression of Charcot–Marie–Tooth 2B-causing Rab7a mutant proteins induces vimentin phosphorylation and increases the amount of vimentin in the soluble fraction. Thus, modulation of expression levels of Rab7a wt or expression of Rab7a mutant proteins changes the assembly of vimentin and its phosphorylation state indicating that Rab7a is important for the regulation of vimentin function.

Charco-Marie-Tooth type 2B (CMT2B) neuropathy is a rare autosomal-dominant axonal disorder characterized by distal weakness, muscle atrophy, and prominent sensory loss often complicated by foot ulcerations. CMT2B is associated with mutations of the Rab7 protein, a small GTPase controlling late endocytic traffic. Currently, it is still unknown how these mutations cause the neuropathy. Indeed, CMT2B selectively affects neuronal processes, despite the ubiquitous expression of Rab7. Therefore, this study focused on whether these disorder-associated mutations exert an effect on neurite outgrowth. We observed a marked inhibition of neurite outgrowth upon expression of all the CMT2B-associated mutants in the PC12 and Neuro2A cell lines. Thus, our data strongly support previous genetic data which proposed that these Rab7 mutations are indeed causally related to CMT2B. Inhibition of neurite outgrowth by these CMT2B-associated Rab7 mutants was confirmed biochemically by impaired up-regulation of growth-associated protein 43 (GAP43) in PC12 cells and of the nuclear neuronal differentiation marker NeuN in Neuro2A cells. Expression of a constitutively active Rab7 mutant had a similar effect to the expression of the CMT2B-associated Rab7 mutants. The active behavior of these CMT2B-associated mutants is in line with their previously demonstrated increased GTP loading, thus confirming that active Rab7 mutants are responsible for CMT2B. Our findings provide an explanation for the ability of CMT2B-associated Rab7 mutants to override the activity of wild-type Rab7 in heterozygous patients. Thus, our data suggest that lowering the activity of Rab7 in neurons could be a targeted therapy for CMT2B.

The use of fluorescent nanocrystals (NCs) as probes for bioimaging applications has emerged as an advantageous alternative to conventional organic fluorescent dyes. Therefore their toxicological evaluation and intracellular delivery are currently a primary field of research. In this work, hydrophobic and highly fluorescent CdSe@ZnS NCs were encapsulated into the lipid bilayer of liposomes by the micelle-to-vesicle transition (MVT) method. The obtained aqueous NC-liposome suspensions preserved the spectroscopic characteristics of the native NCs. A systematic study of the toxicological effect on HeLa cells of these red emitting NC-liposomes was then carried out and compared to that of empty liposomes. By using liposomes of different phospholipid composition, we evaluated the effect of the lipid carrier on the cytotoxicity towards HeLa cells. Surprisingly, a cell proliferation and death study along with the MTT test on HeLa cells treated with NC-liposomes have shown that the toxic effects of NCs, at concentrations up to 20 nM, are negligible compared to those of the lipid carrier, especially when this is constituted by the cationic phospholipid DOTAP. In particular, obtained data suggest that DOTAP has a dose- and time-dependent toxic effect on HeLa cells. In contrast, the addition of PEG to the liposomes does not alter significantly the viability of the cells. In addition, the ability of NC-liposomes to penetrate the HeLa cells was assessed by fluorescence and confocal microscopy investigation. Captured images show that NC-liposomes are internalized into cells through the endocytic pathway, enter early endosomes and reach lysosomes in 1 h. Interestingly, red emitting NCs co-localized with endosomes and were positioned at the limiting membrane of the organelles. The overall results suggest that the fluorescent system as a whole, NCs and their carrier, should be considered for the development of fully safe biological applications of CdSe@ZnS NCs, and provide essential indications to define the optimal experimental conditions to use the proposed system as an optical probe for future experiments.