The cleavage pattern of TDP-43 determines its rate of clearance and cytotoxicity

Abstract

TAR DNA-binding protein of 43 kDa (TDP-43) and its C-terminal fragment of 25 kDa (CTF25) play critical roles in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and frontotemporal lobar degeneration. Although the overexpression of TDP-43 in cultured cells and animals results in the production of CTF25, the cleavage site that generates CTF25 and biological significance of the cleavage remain undetermined. Here we identify Asp174 as a cleavage site for CTF25. TDP-43 is cleaved initially after Asp174, which activates caspase-3/7 to accelerate TDP-43 fragmentation. Consequently, blockage of this cleavage results in a severe delay in TDP-43 clearance and prolonged necrotic cell death. We further show that the endoplasmic reticulum membrane-bound caspase-4 is the enzyme responsible for the cleavage after Asp174 and inhibition of caspase-4 activity slows TDP-43 fragmentation and reduces cell viability. These findings suggest that caspase-4-mediated cleavage after Asp174 is an initiator of TDP-43 clearance, which is required to avoid cell death induced by overexpressed TDP-43. A myotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is one of the most devastating neurodegenerative diseases and is characterized by muscle weakness due to the degeneration of both upper and lower motor neurons. Although the pathogenic mechanism of ALS remains unresolved, the RNA-binding protein TDP-43 has been shown to accumulate in cytoplasmic inclusions in the affected regions of the spinal cord and brain in patients with ALS and frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD), respectively 1,2 . Subsequently, mutations linked with ALS and FTLD have been identified in the gene that encodes TDP-43, which has confirmed the significance of TDP-43 in the pathogenesis of these diseases 3,4 . Most of these mutations occur within or near the carboxyl-terminal (C-terminal) glycine-rich domain (GRD) of TDP-43, except for the D169G point mutation that resides in RNA recognition motif 1 (refs 3,4). TDP-43 is normally localized predominantly in the nucleus. However, in ALS and FTLD patients with TDP-43-positive cytoplasmic inclusions, the protein is abnormally phosphorylated, ubiquitinated and truncated. This results in the accumulation of an B25-kDa C-terminal fragment (CTF25), in addition to other minor CTFs and the full-length TDP-43, in cytoplasmic aggregates. CTFs are hallmarks of forms of disease whose pathology is associated exclusively with abnormalities in TDP-43 and are observed in patients with not only ALS and FTLD but also Alzheimer's disease 5 . Amino-terminal (N-terminal) analysis of CTFs obtained from brain autopsies of patients with FTLD has resulted in the identification of three cleavage sites, Arg208, Asp219 and Asp247, which give rise to CTFs 6,7 . However, the expected sizes of the resulting CTFs are less than 25 kDa, which suggests that CTF25 is probably cleaved at a different position.TDP-43 is a widely expressed 414-amino acid (a.a.) protein comprised of two RNA recognition motifs (RRM1 at a.a. 106-176 and RRM2 at a.a. 191-262) and the GRD 8,9 . The chronic stabilization...

RNA-binding proteins in neurodegeneration: mechanisms in aggregate

“…Once formed in the cytosol, these aggregates can then trap full-length TDP-43, disrupting its normal nucleo-cytoplasmic shuttling and leading to nuclear depletion (Winton et al 2008). However, the existence of these fragments in the brains of patients with both mutant and wild-type TDP-43 alike suggests that cleavage is not specifically driven by mutations (Li et al 2015).…”

Atomic-level evidence for packing and positional amyloid polymorphism by segment from TDP-43 RRM2

“…However, patients with ALS and FTLD have aggregates in the brain and spinal cord that are primarily composed of C-terminal fragments ranging in size from 15 to 35 kDa 37,64,65 . The shorter segments include only part of the RRM2 and the C-terminal tail.…”

TDP-43/FUS in motor neuron disease: Complexity and challenges

“…Although the molecular triggers driving TDP-43 aggregation in spinal motor neurons is not clearly understood, in vitro studies have implicated several critical factors that can induce TDP-43 cleavage and aggregation (Li et al, 2015). TDP-43 can also form dimers that are enriched in cytosolic fractions.…”