TRIM28 regulates the nuclear accumulation and toxicity of both alpha-synuclein and tau

• Main Authors: Maxime WC Rousseaux, Maria de Haro, Cristian A Lasagna-Reeves, Antonia De Maio, Jeehye Park, Paymaan Jafar-Nejad, Ismael Al-Ramahi, Ajay Sharma, Lauren See, Nan Lu, Luis Vilanova-Velez, Tiemo J Klisch, Thomas F Westbrook, Juan C Troncoso, Juan Botas, Huda Y Zoghbi
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: eLife Sciences Publications Ltd 2016-10-01
• Series: eLife
• Subjects: Parkinson's disease; Alzheimer's disease; neurodegeneration; synucleinopathies; tauopathies
• Online Access: https://elifesciences.org/articles/19809

Several neurodegenerative diseases are driven by the toxic gain-of-function of specific proteins within the brain. Elevated levels of alpha-synuclein (α-Syn) appear to drive neurotoxicity in Parkinson's disease (PD); neuronal accumulation of tau is a hallmark of Alzheimer's disease (AD); and their increased levels cause neurodegeneration in humans and model organisms. Despite the clinical differences between AD and PD, several lines of evidence suggest that α-Syn and tau overlap pathologically. The connections between α-Syn and tau led us to ask whether these proteins might be regulated through a shared pathway. We therefore screened for genes that affect post-translational levels of α-Syn and tau. We found that TRIM28 regulates α-Syn and tau levels and that its reduction rescues toxicity in animal models of tau- and α-Syn-mediated degeneration. TRIM28 stabilizes and promotes the nuclear accumulation and toxicity of both proteins. Intersecting screens across comorbid proteinopathies thus reveal shared mechanisms and therapeutic entry points.