Introduction
Protein conformational diseases include a range of degenerative disorders in which specific peptides or proteins misfold and aberrantly self‐assemble, often in the form of amyloid fibrils, which can be deposited in a variety of tissues, the process of which may lead to toxicity and cell death. These disorders, among others, include Alzheimer's (AD), Parkinson's (PD) and Huntington's diseases (HD) (
Chiti and Dobson, 2006;
Luheshi et al, 2008). One of the most studied amyloid‐forming proteins involved in neurodegeneration is α‐synuclein (αSyn), the aggregation of which is linked to the pathogenesis of PD. Indeed, αSyn is the major component of Lewy bodies, the protein‐rich aggregates found post‐mortem in the brains of patients suffering from PD or a number of related diseases.
The pathological conversion of misfolded proteins into cytotoxic species is modulated by interactions with several proteins, among them are molecular chaperones (
Dobson, 2003;
Stefani and Dobson, 2003;
Young et al, 2004;
Balch et al, 2008), which are now recognized as key players in the avoidance of misfolding and hence in protein homeostasis (
Dobson, 2003;
Young et al, 2004;
Balch et al, 2008). A very important class of chaperones is the family of stress‐inducible 70 kDa heat‐shock proteins (Hsp70s), which have a critical function in a range of cellular processes including the folding of newly synthesized proteins (
Frydman et al, 1994) and the rescue of misfolded proteins (
Gragerov et al, 1992;
Mogk et al, 1999), hence avoiding the potentially harmful effects of the aggregation of the latter species (
Hartl, 1996). Hsp70 proteins are composed of an N‐terminal ATPase domain and a C‐terminal substrate‐binding domain (SBD), connected by a short linker region (
Mayer and Bukau, 2005). Within the SBD, the substrate‐binding pocket recognizes unstructured segments in polypeptides (
Bukau and Horwich, 1998;
Mayer et al, 2001) and the current view is that Hsp70 prevents misfolding by binding to certain patterns of hydrophobic and positively charged amino acids in the polypeptide substrate (
Rudiger et al, 1997a,
1997b;
Maeda et al, 2007). The ATPase cycle of Hsp70 involves alternation between an ATP‐bound or ‘open’ state, which has lower affinity for substrates, and an ADP‐bound or ‘closed’ state with higher affinity (
Mayer and Bukau, 2005). This alternation appears to be achieved by a structural ‘coupling’ between the ATPase domain and the SBD, driven by an allosteric mechanism that is not yet fully understood (
Saibil, 2008). The ATPase cycle is typically modulated by several co‐chaperones, most notably Hsp40, resulting in an increase in ATPase activity (
Minami et al, 1996;
Bukau and Horwich, 1998). Other co‐chaperones include Bag‐1, which functions as a nucleotide‐exchange factor (
Takayama and Reed, 2001), Hop, which interacts with Hsp70 to enhance certain functions (
Scheufler et al, 2000), and Hip (or ST13), which binds to the ATPase domain of the chaperone in its ADP‐bound state and appears to increase the half‐life of substrate complexes (
Hohfeld et al, 1995).
There seems to be a strong link between problems in the regulation of chaperone function and the panoply of conformational diseases and amyloidoses (
Dobson, 2003;
Macario and De Macario, 2007). For example, patients with PD show highly perturbed expression of Hsp70 in the
substantia nigra, which is the site of neurodegeneration in this condition (
Grunblatt et al, 2001;
Hauser et al, 2005). Indeed, Hsp70 has been found in deposits in the brain of AD patients, in polyglutamine aggregates of sufferers of HD, and in Lewy bodies from PD patients (
Muchowski and Wacker, 2005). Furthermore, in PD fly models (
Auluck et al, 2002) and in human neuroglioma cells (
Klucken et al, 2004;
Zhou et al, 2004), over‐expression of Hsp70 has been found to reduce significantly the toxicity linked to αSyn. Also, it is particularly interesting that the co‐chaperone Hip is consistently present at lower levels in the blood of PD patients relative to healthy controls, even at the early stages of the disease (
Scherzer et al, 2007).
Despite the compelling in vivo evidence of the implications of Hsp70 in disease, in vitro studies of the molecular mechanisms of the Hsp70‐mediated inhibition of amyloid formation are relatively sparse. For example, the nature of the misfolded species recognized by Hsp70 and of the complexes formed during amyloid aggregation of polypeptides, are not yet known. Equally important is the need to understand the ways in which nucleotides control the interactions with amyloidogenic protein substrates and the potentially important functions by co‐chaperones in assisting Hsp70 in its amyloid‐inhibiting functions. In this work, we consider the impact of different nucleotide conditions and of co‐chaperones on the anti‐aggregation activity of Hsp70. Using αSyn as the substrate, we have probed substrate–chaperone interactions for Hsp70 as a function of the nucleotide state of the chaperone and the different species of αSyn attained along the aggregation pathways. By using fluorescence and NMR spectroscopy, we have characterized a structurally compact ADP‐Hsp70/αSyn complex that may promote the co‐aggregation of Hsp70 and may therefore lead to chaperone depletion. We further identify an important function for the co‐chaperone Hip in sustaining the Hsp70‐mediated anti‐amyloid activity, both in vitro and in vivo, the latter studies by means of a Caenorhabditis elegans model of αSyn aggregation, and speculate that this specific co‐chaperone could have an important function in the onset and progression of PD.
Discussion
Although considerable efforts have been made to try to understand how Hsp70 prevents the misfolding and aggregation of proteins in the cell (
Mayer and Bukau, 2005), much less emphasis has been placed on the mechanism underlying its modulatory activity in the context of amyloid formation and disease. In the case of an ATP‐dependent chaperone, it is of particular significance to unravel regulatory effects associated with conformationally dynamic states. Here, we describe biochemical and biophysical experiments that demonstrate that the ability of Hsp70 to inhibit the aggregation of αSyn depends on factors such as nucleotide binding and the presence of the Hip co‐chaperone, for which we provide additional evidence from an
in vivo model of αSyn aggregation. These factors appear to modulate the outcome of the protein misfolding and aggregation process, hence precluding the formation of toxic oligomeric species, rather than inhibiting the elongation of mature amyloid fibrils that are likely to be much less harmful.
Earlier studies have shown that Hsp70 could inhibit the formation of αSyn amyloid fibrils in the absence of ATP by interacting with oligomeric αSyn and stimulating the formation of amorphous aggregates (
Dedmon et al, 2005;
Huang et al, 2006). The results we present here show that in the presence of physiological concentrations of ATP, Hsp70 significantly increases the lag phase associated with αSyn aggregation, such that amyloid fibrils still appear but typically much more slowly than when otherwise be the case (
Figure 1). This finding is consistent with
in vivo observations where over‐expression of Hsp70 was found to reduce αSyn toxicity, but did not prevent the accumulation of amyloid aggregates in tissue (
Auluck et al, 2002). We find the inhibitory effect of Hsp70 in the presence of ATP to be dependent on the Hsp70/αSyn ratio, and have observed that a combination of both αSyn and ATP, or its hydrolytic product ADP, causes Hsp70 itself to aggregate, regardless of the presence of Hsp40. These observations are in line with earlier findings related to HD, in which treatment of amyloidogenic huntingtin with Hsc70‐Hsp40 and ATP disfavoured the population of oligomeric species and resulted in the accumulation of amyloid fibrils (
Muchowski et al, 2000;
Wacker et al, 2004). Moreover, the finding that Hsp70 has a tendency to aggregate in the presence of αSyn and ATP (or ADP) provides the basis for the well‐established co‐localization of Hsp70 and αSyn in Lewy bodies (
Lee and Lee, 2002;
Muchowski and Wacker, 2005). The depletion of functional chaperones and co‐chaperones would heavily impair the ability of proteins to resist aggregation and to maintain protein homeostasis, phenomena that are thought to lie at the foundations of amyloid diseases (
Dobson, 2003;
Balch et al, 2008).
An interesting mechanistic observation from the current studies is that the addition of the competing peptide substrate NR does not detectably disrupt the efficacy of Hsp70 to act as a chaperone towards αSyn in the nucleotide‐free state, and still allows the inhibition of amyloid formation by Hsp70. In the nucleotide‐loaded state, however, the NR peptide reduces the extent of the co‐aggregation of Hsp70 with αSyn (
Figure 1), probably by competing with the protein for the substrate‐binding pocket (
Figure 3). These results suggest strongly the existence of distinct modes of binding for αSyn to nucleotide‐loaded or nucleotide‐free Hsp70, i.e. canonical and non‐canonical binding modes, which are likely to determine the result of the aggregation reaction (
Figure 6). FRET and NMR spectroscopy have enabled us to discover that Hsp70 does indeed recognize and bind to αSyn monomers as well as oligomers through at least three different types of interactions (
Figure 3;
Supplementary Figures 3,
4 and
5). In the ADP‐loaded state, αSyn monomers are located closer to the substrate‐binding pocket of Hsp70, an interaction mediated by two regions, present in the N‐terminal and NAC region of αSyn. We propose that this compact nucleotide‐Hsp70/monomeric αSyn complex is critical in delaying the onset of fibril formation, but could also be responsible for the co‐aggregation of Hsp70 and αSyn. A recent study mapped the region recognized on αSyn by Hsp70 as the broad segment between residues 21 and 110 (
Luk et al, 2008). We have refined this region and located two stretches of amino acids with the highest probability of binding (residues 32–43 and 71–83) and then show that Hsp70 binds to the latter site, the stretch of hydrophobic residues that readily forms amyloid fibrils
in vitro, and is generally assumed to be involved in initiating the conversion of αSyn into amyloid fibrils (
Biere et al, 2000;
Giasson et al, 2001). Moreover, binding to the N‐terminal region of αSyn is supported by a comparative study of βSyn, in which we provide evidence of a complex formed with Hsp70, dispelling the general assumption that such an interaction is unlikely to occur.
Although likely to be less physiologically relevant, we have found that nucleotide‐free Hsp70 also interacts with monomeric αSyn through which appears to be a non‐canonical mode of interaction. This leads to the stabilization of soluble amorphous aggregates and hence inhibits fibril formation. These results are in line with the proposition (
Gao et al, 1995) that when the nucleotide is absent from the nucleotide‐binding site of Hsc70—the constitutively expressed analogue of Hsp70—the substrate‐binding region interacts more flexibly with a protein substrate. Possibly such transient interactions, recently suggested for the Hsp70/αSyn complex (
Luk et al, 2008), do not compromise the solubility of Hsp70. With ADP in the nucleotide‐binding site, however, the SBD appears to be much less dynamic, as the residence time of the substrate in the binding pocket is increased. Finally, the FRET data suggest that αSyn oligomers are preferentially bound by nucleotide‐free Hsp70, consistent with the view that N‐terminal and central domains of αSyn are likely to be buried in the aggregated species.
One possible reason why nucleotide‐free Hsp70 impairs the ability of αSyn to form amyloid fibrils could be related to an off‐pathway nature of the intermediate species stabilized by the formation of the Hsp70/αSyn complex. Indeed, we observed non‐fibrillar oligomers to be predominantly populated at early incubation time points in the presence of nucleotide‐free chaperone, whereas short protofibrils of αSyn were found to co‐aggregate with Hsp70 in the presence of ATP. Studies of the effects of such soluble pre‐fibrillar aggregates on a human neuronal cell line have shown that protofibrils initially formed by treatment with Hsp70 and ATP are less toxic than the oligomers stabilized by nucleotide‐free Hsp70 (
Figure 2). This protective effect of Hsp70 in a medium with ATP, however, disappears during the course of the elongation phase of fibril formation in parallel with the depletion of soluble Hsp70. A shift in population towards highly toxic soluble αSyn species at later points in the aggregation reaction suggests that Hsp70 is co‐aggregating with less toxic αSyn species.
Biologically, Hsp70 does not function independently as many co‐chaperones and auxiliary factors are involved in regulating its cellular functions in the cell. In this regard, it is extremely interesting that the Hsp70‐interacting protein Hip (ST13) has recently been found to be consistently under‐expressed in PD patients even in the early stages of the disease (
Scherzer et al, 2007), a conclusion that suggests a coupling between both proteins in disease progression or initiation. We have found strong evidence in this study for a dramatic effect of Hip on the availability of functionally competent Hsp70 in the presence of aggregating αSyn. Hip is in fact capable of suppressing the co‐aggregation of Hsp70 with αSyn, and hence the extent of amyloid fibril formation observed in the presence of nucleotides is virtually completely suppressed in the presence of Hip (
Figure 4). Moreover, our results with an
in vivo αSyn aggregation model of
C. elegans strongly support the hypothesis derived from the
in vitro experiments, indicating that Hip is indeed required for suppression of αSyn inclusion formation in an Hsp70‐dependent manner (
Figure 5). In line with this important finding, a recent study of a polyQ model of HD found that Hip assists Hsp70 in the anti‐aggregation activity of Hsp70 (
Howarth et al, 2009). The observation in our
C. elegans model that the absence of Hip alone could give rise to more inclusions than when both Hip and Hsp70 are absent is consistent with a scenario in which there is a redundancy of chaperone pathways, likely mediated by the constitutive presence of Hsc70 and other chaperones such as Hsp90 (
Uryu et al, 2006). Interestingly, Hip has been shown to interact with Hsp70 by binding to its ATPase domain specifically in the ADP‐bound state, both
in vitro and
in vivo, without affecting its ATPase activity (
Hohfeld et al, 1995;
Nollen et al, 2001). A possible explanation for its stabilizing effect on the ADP‐Hsp70/αSyn complex in solution is that the binding of Hip could shield hydrophobic regions in the ATPase domain of Hsp70 that become exposed in the ADP‐bound complex with αSyn (
Figure 6). Alternatively, we speculate that binding of Hip to the ATPase domain could induce a structural change in the SBD, favouring a conformation of Hsp70 similar to that populated in the nucleotide‐free state, which we have shown does not promote the co‐aggregation of Hsp70 and αSyn. This situation could be reminiscent of that proposed for the Hsp70 escorting protein (Hep) when bound to the nucleotide‐free state of mitochondrial Hsp70 (mtHsp70), which inhibits self‐aggregation of mtHsp70, both
in vitro and
in vivo (
Sichting et al, 2005).
In summary, three central conclusions from this study appear to be of broad importance in the quest to unravel the highly complex function of chaperone availability and proteostasis in amyloid diseases. The first is the observation that the ATP cycle modulates the ability of Hsp70 to inhibit fibril formation by amyloid‐forming proteins, shedding light on the mechanism by which ATP‐dependent chaperones act in the context of misfolding diseases. The second important finding is that ADP‐bound Hsp70 has a very high propensity to co‐aggregate with αSyn, suggesting that chaperone depletion favoured under certain conditions could be an important feature in the onset and progression of amyloid disorders. Finally, we have identified a functional role of Hip, an auxiliary factor for Hsp70, in preventing the co‐aggregation of Hsp70 with αSyn, thereby reducing the toxicity of amyloidogenesis. Maintaining the cellular level of Hip may be one solution for intervening the onset and development of PD.