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Physiological Reviews Jul 2021Cells metabolize nutrients for biosynthetic and bioenergetic needs to fuel growth and proliferation. The uptake of nutrients from the environment and their intracellular... (Review)
Review
Cells metabolize nutrients for biosynthetic and bioenergetic needs to fuel growth and proliferation. The uptake of nutrients from the environment and their intracellular metabolism is a highly controlled process that involves cross talk between growth signaling and metabolic pathways. Despite constant fluctuations in nutrient availability and environmental signals, normal cells restore metabolic homeostasis to maintain cellular functions and prevent disease. A central signaling molecule that integrates growth with metabolism is the mechanistic target of rapamycin (mTOR). mTOR is a protein kinase that responds to levels of nutrients and growth signals. mTOR forms two protein complexes, mTORC1, which is sensitive to rapamycin, and mTORC2, which is not directly inhibited by this drug. Rapamycin has facilitated the discovery of the various functions of mTORC1 in metabolism. Genetic models that disrupt either mTORC1 or mTORC2 have expanded our knowledge of their cellular, tissue, as well as systemic functions in metabolism. Nevertheless, our knowledge of the regulation and functions of mTORC2, particularly in metabolism, has lagged behind. Since mTOR is an important target for cancer, aging, and other metabolism-related pathologies, understanding the distinct and overlapping regulation and functions of the two mTOR complexes is vital for the development of more effective therapeutic strategies. This review discusses the key discoveries and recent findings on the regulation and metabolic functions of the mTOR complexes. We highlight findings from cancer models but also discuss other examples of the mTOR-mediated metabolic reprogramming occurring in stem and immune cells, type 2 diabetes/obesity, neurodegenerative disorders, and aging.
Topics: Animals; Glycolysis; Humans; Lipid Metabolism; Mechanistic Target of Rapamycin Complex 1; Mechanistic Target of Rapamycin Complex 2; Signal Transduction
PubMed: 33599151
DOI: 10.1152/physrev.00026.2020 -
Nature Communications Jan 2023Post-translational modifications (PTMs) can occur on specific amino acids localized within regulatory domains of target proteins, which control a protein's stability.... (Review)
Review
Post-translational modifications (PTMs) can occur on specific amino acids localized within regulatory domains of target proteins, which control a protein's stability. These regions, called degrons, are often controlled by PTMs, which act as signals to expedite protein degradation (PTM-activated degrons) or to forestall degradation and stabilize a protein (PTM-inactivated degrons). We summarize current knowledge of the regulation of protein stability by various PTMs. We aim to display the variety and breadth of known mechanisms of regulation as well as highlight common themes in PTM-regulated degrons to enhance potential for identifying novel drug targets where druggable targets are currently lacking.
Topics: Protein Processing, Post-Translational; Proteins; Proteolysis; Amino Acids; Protein Stability
PubMed: 36639369
DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-35795-8 -
Signal Transduction and Targeted Therapy Dec 2022Metabolic reprogramming is involved in the pathogenesis of not only cancers but also neurodegenerative diseases, cardiovascular diseases, and infectious diseases. With... (Review)
Review
Metabolic reprogramming is involved in the pathogenesis of not only cancers but also neurodegenerative diseases, cardiovascular diseases, and infectious diseases. With the progress of metabonomics and proteomics, metabolites have been found to affect protein acylations through providing acyl groups or changing the activities of acyltransferases or deacylases. Reciprocally, protein acylation is involved in key cellular processes relevant to physiology and diseases, such as protein stability, protein subcellular localization, enzyme activity, transcriptional activity, protein-protein interactions and protein-DNA interactions. Herein, we summarize the functional diversity and mechanisms of eight kinds of nonhistone protein acylations in the physiological processes and progression of several diseases. We also highlight the recent progress in the development of inhibitors for acyltransferase, deacylase, and acylation reader proteins for their potential applications in drug discovery.
Topics: Acyltransferases; Acylation; Proteins; Protein Processing, Post-Translational
PubMed: 36577755
DOI: 10.1038/s41392-022-01245-y -
Signal Transduction and Targeted Therapy Feb 2021The arachidonic acid (AA) pathway plays a key role in cardiovascular biology, carcinogenesis, and many inflammatory diseases, such as asthma, arthritis, etc. Esterified... (Review)
Review
The arachidonic acid (AA) pathway plays a key role in cardiovascular biology, carcinogenesis, and many inflammatory diseases, such as asthma, arthritis, etc. Esterified AA on the inner surface of the cell membrane is hydrolyzed to its free form by phospholipase A2 (PLA2), which is in turn further metabolized by cyclooxygenases (COXs) and lipoxygenases (LOXs) and cytochrome P450 (CYP) enzymes to a spectrum of bioactive mediators that includes prostanoids, leukotrienes (LTs), epoxyeicosatrienoic acids (EETs), dihydroxyeicosatetraenoic acid (diHETEs), eicosatetraenoic acids (ETEs), and lipoxins (LXs). Many of the latter mediators are considered to be novel preventive and therapeutic targets for cardiovascular diseases (CVD), cancers, and inflammatory diseases. This review sets out to summarize the physiological and pathophysiological importance of the AA metabolizing pathways and outline the molecular mechanisms underlying the actions of AA related to its three main metabolic pathways in CVD and cancer progression will provide valuable insight for developing new therapeutic drugs for CVD and anti-cancer agents such as inhibitors of EETs or 2J2. Thus, we herein present a synopsis of AA metabolism in human health, cardiovascular and cancer biology, and the signaling pathways involved in these processes. To explore the role of the AA metabolism and potential therapies, we also introduce the current newly clinical studies targeting AA metabolisms in the different disease conditions.
Topics: Arachidonic Acids; Cell Membrane; Cytochrome P-450 Enzyme System; Humans; Leukotrienes; Lipid Metabolism; Lipoxins; Lipoxygenases; Metabolic Networks and Pathways; Phospholipases A2; Prostaglandin-Endoperoxide Synthases; Prostaglandins
PubMed: 33637672
DOI: 10.1038/s41392-020-00443-w -
International Journal of Molecular... Jun 2021Despite its abundance in the environment, iron is poorly bioavailable and subject to strict conservation and internal recycling by most organisms. In vertebrates, the... (Review)
Review
Despite its abundance in the environment, iron is poorly bioavailable and subject to strict conservation and internal recycling by most organisms. In vertebrates, the stability of iron concentration in plasma and extracellular fluid, and the total body iron content are maintained by the interaction of the iron-regulatory peptide hormone hepcidin with its receptor and cellular iron exporter ferroportin (SLC40a1). Ferroportin exports iron from duodenal enterocytes that absorb dietary iron, from iron-recycling macrophages in the spleen and the liver, and from iron-storing hepatocytes. Hepcidin blocks iron export through ferroportin, causing hypoferremia. During iron deficiency or after hemorrhage, hepcidin decreases to allow iron delivery to plasma through ferroportin, thus promoting compensatory erythropoiesis. As a host defense mediator, hepcidin increases in response to infection and inflammation, blocking iron delivery through ferroportin to blood plasma, thus limiting iron availability to invading microbes. Genetic diseases that decrease hepcidin synthesis or disrupt hepcidin binding to ferroportin cause the iron overload disorder hereditary hemochromatosis. The opposite phenotype, iron restriction or iron deficiency, can result from genetic or inflammatory overproduction of hepcidin.
Topics: Animals; Autocrine Communication; Biological Transport; Cation Transport Proteins; Disease Susceptibility; Hepcidins; Homeostasis; Humans; Iron; Ligands; Metabolic Networks and Pathways; Paracrine Communication; Protein Binding; Signal Transduction; Tissue Distribution
PubMed: 34204327
DOI: 10.3390/ijms22126493 -
Cell Metabolism Sep 2019Reactive microglia are a major pathological feature of Alzheimer's disease (AD). However, the exact role of microglia in AD pathogenesis is still unclear. Here, using...
Reactive microglia are a major pathological feature of Alzheimer's disease (AD). However, the exact role of microglia in AD pathogenesis is still unclear. Here, using metabolic profiling, we found that exposure to amyloid-β triggers acute microglial inflammation accompanied by metabolic reprogramming from oxidative phosphorylation to glycolysis. It was dependent on the mTOR-HIF-1α pathway. However, once activated, microglia reached a chronic tolerant phase as a result of broad defects in energy metabolisms and subsequently diminished immune responses, including cytokine secretion and phagocytosis. Using genome-wide RNA sequencing and multiphoton microscopy techniques, we further identified metabolically defective microglia in 5XFAD mice, an AD mouse model. Finally, we showed that metabolic boosting with recombinant interferon-γ treatment reversed the defective glycolytic metabolism and inflammatory functions of microglia, thereby mitigating the AD pathology of 5XFAD mice. Collectively, metabolic reprogramming is crucial for microglial functions in AD, and modulating metabolism might be a new therapeutic strategy for AD.
Topics: Alzheimer Disease; Amyloid beta-Peptides; Animals; Cell Line; Cytokines; Disease Models, Animal; Female; Gene Expression Regulation; Glycolysis; Hypoxia-Inducible Factor 1, alpha Subunit; Inflammation; Interferon-gamma; Male; Mice; Mice, Inbred ICR; Mice, Transgenic; Microglia; Oxidative Phosphorylation; Phagocytosis; Recombinant Proteins; TOR Serine-Threonine Kinases
PubMed: 31257151
DOI: 10.1016/j.cmet.2019.06.005 -
Neurochemical Research Oct 2019Post-translational modifications (PTMs) are important regulators of protein function, and integrate metabolism with physiological and pathological processes.... (Review)
Review
Post-translational modifications (PTMs) are important regulators of protein function, and integrate metabolism with physiological and pathological processes. Phosphorylation and acetylation are particularly well studied PTMs. A relatively recently discovered novel PTM is succinylation in which metabolically derived succinyl CoA modifies protein lysine groups. Succinylation causes a protein charge flip from positive to negative and a relatively large increase in mass compared to other PTMs. Hundreds of protein succinylation sites are present in proteins of multiple tissues and species, and the significance is being actively investigated. The few completed studies demonstrate that succinylation alters rates of enzymes and pathways, especially mitochondrial metabolic pathways. Thus, succinylation provides an elegant and efficient mechanism to coordinate metabolism and signaling by utilizing metabolic intermediates as sensors to regulate metabolism. Even though the brain is one of the most metabolically active organs, an understanding of the role succinylation in the nervous system is largely unknown. Data from other tissues and other PTMs suggest that succinylation provides a coupling between metabolism and protein function in the nervous system and in neurological diseases. This review provides a new insight into metabolism in neurological diseases and suggests that the drug development for these diseases requires a better understanding of succinylation and de-succinylation in the brain and other tissues.
Topics: Acyl Coenzyme A; Animals; Humans; Lysine; Metabolic Networks and Pathways; Mitochondria; Protein Processing, Post-Translational; Proteome
PubMed: 30903449
DOI: 10.1007/s11064-019-02780-x -
Nature May 2023Peroxisomes are organelles that carry out β-oxidation of fatty acids and amino acids. Both rare and prevalent diseases are caused by their dysfunction. Among...
Peroxisomes are organelles that carry out β-oxidation of fatty acids and amino acids. Both rare and prevalent diseases are caused by their dysfunction. Among disease-causing variant genes are those required for protein transport into peroxisomes. The peroxisomal protein import machinery, which also shares similarities with chloroplasts, is unique in transporting folded and large, up to 10 nm in diameter, protein complexes into peroxisomes. Current models postulate a large pore formed by transmembrane proteins; however, so far, no pore structure has been observed. In the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, the minimum transport machinery includes the membrane proteins Pex13 and Pex14 and the cargo-protein-binding transport receptor, Pex5. Here we show that Pex13 undergoes liquid-liquid phase separation (LLPS) with Pex5-cargo. Intrinsically disordered regions in Pex13 and Pex5 resemble those found in nuclear pore complex proteins. Peroxisomal protein import depends on both the number and pattern of aromatic residues in these intrinsically disordered regions, consistent with their roles as 'stickers' in associative polymer models of LLPS. Finally, imaging fluorescence cross-correlation spectroscopy shows that cargo import correlates with transient focusing of GFP-Pex13 and GFP-Pex14 on the peroxisome membrane. Pex13 and Pex14 form foci in distinct time frames, suggesting that they may form channels at different saturating concentrations of Pex5-cargo. Our findings lead us to suggest a model in which LLPS of Pex5-cargo with Pex13 and Pex14 results in transient protein transport channels.
Topics: Intracellular Membranes; Membrane Proteins; Peroxins; Peroxisome-Targeting Signal 1 Receptor; Peroxisomes; Phase Transition; Protein Binding; Protein Transport; Saccharomyces cerevisiae; Saccharomyces cerevisiae Proteins; Intrinsically Disordered Proteins
PubMed: 37165185
DOI: 10.1038/s41586-023-06044-1 -
Trends in Molecular Medicine Nov 2020Keratinocytes and skin immune cells are actively metabolizing nutrients present in their microenvironment. This is particularly important in common chronic inflammatory... (Review)
Review
Keratinocytes and skin immune cells are actively metabolizing nutrients present in their microenvironment. This is particularly important in common chronic inflammatory skin diseases such as psoriasis and atopic dermatitis, characterized by hyperproliferation of keratinocytes and expansion of inflammatory cells, thus suggesting increased cell nutritional requirements. Proliferating inflammatory cells and keratinocytes express high levels of glucose transporter (GLUT)1, l-type amino acid transporter (LAT)1, and cationic amino acid transporters (CATs). Main metabolic regulators such as hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF)-1α, MYC, and mechanistic target of rapamycin (mTOR) control immune cell activation, proliferation, and cytokine release. Here, we provide an updated perspective regarding the potential role of nutrient transporters and metabolic pathways that could be common to immune cells and keratinocytes, to control psoriasis and atopic dermatitis.
Topics: Amino Acids; Animals; Biological Transport; Dermatitis; Disease Susceptibility; Glucose; Homeostasis; Humans; Keratinocytes; Membrane Transport Proteins; Metabolic Networks and Pathways; Signal Transduction; Skin; Skin Physiological Phenomena; TOR Serine-Threonine Kinases
PubMed: 32371170
DOI: 10.1016/j.molmed.2020.04.004 -
Nature Dec 2021The N-degron pathway targets proteins that bear a destabilizing residue at the N terminus for proteasome-dependent degradation. In yeast, Ubr1-a single-subunit E3...
The N-degron pathway targets proteins that bear a destabilizing residue at the N terminus for proteasome-dependent degradation. In yeast, Ubr1-a single-subunit E3 ligase-is responsible for the Arg/N-degron pathway. How Ubr1 mediates the initiation of ubiquitination and the elongation of the ubiquitin chain in a linkage-specific manner through a single E2 ubiquitin-conjugating enzyme (Ubc2) remains unknown. Here we developed chemical strategies to mimic the reaction intermediates of the first and second ubiquitin transfer steps, and determined the cryo-electron microscopy structures of Ubr1 in complex with Ubc2, ubiquitin and two N-degron peptides, representing the initiation and elongation steps of ubiquitination. Key structural elements, including a Ubc2-binding region and an acceptor ubiquitin-binding loop on Ubr1, were identified and characterized. These structures provide mechanistic insights into the initiation and elongation of ubiquitination catalysed by Ubr1.
Topics: Binding Sites; Biocatalysis; Cryoelectron Microscopy; Lysine; Models, Molecular; Proteasome Endopeptidase Complex; Proteolysis; Reproducibility of Results; Saccharomyces cerevisiae; Saccharomyces cerevisiae Proteins; Ubiquitin; Ubiquitin-Conjugating Enzymes; Ubiquitin-Protein Ligases; Ubiquitination
PubMed: 34789879
DOI: 10.1038/s41586-021-04097-8