Anti-AIFM1 (aa 517-531) polyclonal antibody

Huntington disease (HD) is a neurodegenerative disorder caused by an expansion of a polyglutamine repeat within the HD gene product, huntingtin. Huntingtin, a large (347 kDa) protein containing multiple HEAT repeats, acts as a scaffold for protein-protein interactions. Huntingtin-induced toxicity is believed to be mediated by a conformational change in expanded huntingtin, leading to protein misfolding and aggregation, aberrant protein interactions and neuronal cell death. While many non-systematic studies of huntingtin interactions have been reported, they were not designed to identify and quantify the changes in the huntingtin interactome induced by polyglutamine expansion. We used tandem affinity purification and quantitative proteomics to compare and quantify interactions of normal or expanded huntingtin isolated from a striatal cell line. We found that proteins preferentially interacting with expanded huntingtin are enriched for intrinsically disordered proteins, consistent with previously suggested roles of such proteins in neurodegenerative disorders. Our functional analysis indicates that proteins related to energy production, protein trafficking, RNA post-transcriptional modifications and cell death were significantly enriched among preferential interactors of expanded huntingtin. Expanded huntingtin interacted with many mitochondrial proteins, including AIFM1, consistent with a role for mitochondrial dysfunction in HD. Furthermore, expanded huntingtin interacted with the stress granule-associated proteins Caprin-1 and G3BP and redistributed to RNA stress granules under ER-stress conditions. These data demonstrate that a number of key cellular functions and networks may be disrupted by abnormal interactions of expanded huntingtin and highlight proteins and pathways that may be involved in HD cellular pathogenesis and that may serve as therapeutic targets.

We investigated two male infant patients who were given a diagnosis of progressive mitochondrial encephalomyopathy on the basis of clinical, biochemical, and morphological features. These patients were born from monozygotic twin sisters and unrelated fathers, suggesting an X-linked trait. Fibroblasts from both showed reduction of respiratory chain (RC) cIII and cIV, but not of cl activities. We found a disease-segregating mutation in the X-linked AIFM1 gene, encoding the Apoptosis-Inducing Factor (AIF) mitochondrion-associated 1 precursor that deletes arginine 201 (R201 del). Under normal conditions, mature AIF is a FAD-dependent NADH oxidase of unknown function and is targeted to the mitochondrial intermembrane space (this form is called AIF(mit)). Upon apoptogenic stimuli, a soluble form (AIF(sol)) is released by proteolytic cleavage and migrates to the nucleus, where it induces "parthanatos," i.e., caspase-independent fragmentation of chromosomal DNA. In vitro, the AIF(R201) (del) mutation decreases stability of both AIF(mit), and AIF(sol) and increases the AIF(sol) DNA binding affinity, a prerequisite for nuclear apoptosis. In AIF(R201) (del) fibroblasts, staurosporine-induced parthanatos was markedly increased, whereas re-expression of AIF(wt) induced recovery of RC activities. Numerous TUNEL-positive, caspase 3-negative nuclei were visualized in patient #1's muscle, again indicating markedly increased parthanatos in the AIF(R201 del) critical tissues. We conclude that AIF(R201) (del) is an unstable mutant variant associated with increased parthanatos-linked cell death. Our data suggest a role for AIF in RC integrity and mtDNA maintenance, at least in some tissues. Interestingly, riboflavin supplementation was associated with prolonged improvement of patient #1's neurological conditions, as well as correction of RC defects in mutant fibroblasts, suggesting that stabilization of the FAD binding in AIF(mit) is beneficial.