Abstract 16870: Dissociation of Mitochondrial HK-II Triggers Mitochondria Specific Autophagy

Abstract

Introduction: There is emerging evidence that the metabolic pathway interplays with the survival pathway to preserve cellular homeostasis. Hexokinases (HKs) catalyze the first step of glucose metabolism and hexokinase-II (HK-II) is the predominant isoform in the heart. Our recent study revealed that HK-II positively regulates general autophagy in the absence of glucose. Mitochondrial HK-II (mitoHK-II) is regulated by Akt and provides cardioprotection while it is decreased in the ischemic heart. Hypothesis: We tested the hypothesis that mitoHK-II dissociation triggers mitochondria specific autophagy (mitophagy). Results: As previously reported, mitoHK-II levels were decreased by ~40% in the perfused mouse heart subjected to global ischemia and in neonatal rat ventricular myocytes (NRVMs) subjected to simulated ischemia. To assess the role of mitoHK-II dissociation, mitoHK-II dissociating peptide (15NG) was expressed in NRVMs. MitoHK-II was decreased by 40% in NRVMs expressing 15NG which was accompanied with Parkin translocation to mitochondria and ubiquitination of mitochondrial proteins. This response was attenuated by Parkin knockdown and reversed by the recovery of mitoHK-II by co-expression of HK-II but not by that of mitochondria binding deficient mutant. 15NG expression did not induce mitochondrial membrane depolarization nor PINK1 stabilization at mitochondria, suggesting that the effects of mitoHK-II dissociation is not dependent on the previously established mitochondria depolarization/PINK1 pathway. This was confirmed by the experiments using PINK1 siRNA. Modest dissociation of mitoHK-II (by 20%) did not induce mitophagic responses but remarkably enhanced FCCP induced mitophagy, indicating that these two pathways are synergetic. We will be analyzing 15NG transgenic mice generated in our lab to determine the mitophagic role of mitoHK-II dissociation in vivo. Conclusions: These results suggest that mitoHK-II dissociation can regulate Parkin dependent mitophagy, in conjunction with depolarization dependent mechanisms and that HK-II could confer cardioprotection by switching the cell from an energy production to an energy conservation mode under ischemia.