Activation of LXRβ inhibits tumor respiration and is synthetically lethal with Bcl-xL inhibition

Liver-X-receptor (LXR) agonists are known to bear anti-tumor activity. However, their efficacy is limited and additional insights regarding the underlying mechanism are necessary. By performing transcriptome analysis coupled with global polar metabolite screening, we show that LXR agonists, LXR623 and GW3965, enhance synergistically the anti-proliferative effect of BH3 mimetics in solid tumor malignancies, which is predominantly mediated by cell death with features of apoptosis and is rescued by exogenous cholesterol. Extracellular flux analysis and carbon tracing experiments (U-13C-glucose and U-13C-glutamine) reveal that within 5 h, activation of LXRβ results in reprogramming of tumor cell metabolism, leading to suppression of mitochondrial respiration, a phenomenon not observed in normal human astrocytes. LXR activation elicits a suppression of respiratory complexes at the protein level by reducing their stability. In turn, energy starvation drives an integrated stress response (ISR) that up-regulates pro-apoptotic Noxa in an ATF4-dependent manner. Cholesterol and nucleotides rescue from the ISR elicited by LXR agonists and from cell death induced by LXR agonists and BH3 mimetics. In conventional and patient-derived xenograft models of colon carcinoma, melanoma, and glioblastoma, the combination treatment of ABT263 and LXR agonists reduces tumor sizes significantly stronger than single treatments. Therefore, the combination treatment of LXR agonists and BH3 mimetics might be a viable efficacious treatment approach for solid malignancies

Novel recessive mutations in COQ4 cause severe infantile cardiomyopathy and encephalopathy associated with CoQ10 deficiency

Coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10) or ubiquinone is one of the two electron carriers in the mitochondrial respiratory chain which has an essential role in the process of oxidative phosphorylation. Defects in CoQ10 synthesis are usually associated with the impaired function of CoQ10–dependent complexes I, II and III. The recessively transmitted CoQ10 deficiency has been associated with a number of phenotypically and genetically heterogeneous groups of disorders manifesting at variable age of onset. The infantile, multisystemic presentation is usually caused by mutations in genes directly involved in CoQ10 biosynthesis. To date, mutations in COQ1 (PDSS1 and PDSS2), COQ2, COQ4, COQ6, COQ7, COQ8A/ADCK3, COQ8B/ADCK4, and COQ9 genes have been identified in patients with primary form of CoQ10 deficiency. Here we report novel mutations in the COQ4 gene, which were identified in an infant with profound mitochondrial disease presenting with perinatal seizures, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and severe muscle CoQ10 deficiency

A Nonsense Mutation in COQ9 Causes Autosomal-Recessive Neonatal-Onset Primary Coenzyme Q10 Deficiency: A Potentially Treatable Form of Mitochondrial Disease

Coenzyme Q10 is a mobile lipophilic electron carrier located in the inner mitochondrial membrane. Defects of coenzyme Q10 biosynthesis represent one of the few treatable mitochondrial diseases. We genotyped a patient with primary coenzyme Q10 deficiency who presented with neonatal lactic acidosis and later developed multisytem disease including intractable seizures, global developmental delay, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, and renal tubular dysfunction. Cultured skin fibroblasts from the patient had a coenzyme Q10 biosynthetic rate of 11% of normal controls and accumulated an abnormal metabolite that we believe to be a biosynthetic intermediate. In view of the rarity of coenzyme Q10 deficiency, we hypothesized that the disease-causing gene might lie in a region of ancestral homozygosity by descent. Data from an Illumina HumanHap550 array were analyzed with BeadStudio software. Sixteen regions of homozygosity >1.5 Mb were identified in the affected infant. Two of these regions included the loci of two of 16 candidate genes implicated in human coenzyme Q10 biosynthesis. Sequence analysis demonstrated a homozygous stop mutation affecting a highly conserved residue of COQ9, leading to the truncation of 75 amino acids. Site-directed mutagenesis targeting the equivalent residue in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae abolished respiratory growth

Coenzyme Q deficiency causes impairment of the sulfide oxidation pathway

Abstract Coenzyme Q (CoQ) is an electron acceptor for sulfide‐quinone reductase (SQR), the first enzyme of the hydrogen sulfide oxidation pathway. Here, we show that lack of CoQ in human skin fibroblasts causes impairment of hydrogen sulfide oxidation, proportional to the residual levels of CoQ. Biochemical and molecular abnormalities are rescued by CoQ supplementation in vitro and recapitulated by pharmacological inhibition of CoQ biosynthesis in skin fibroblasts and ADCK3 depletion in HeLa cells. Kidneys of Pdss2kd/kd mice, which only have ~15% residual CoQ concentrations and are clinically affected, showed (i) reduced protein levels of SQR and downstream enzymes, (ii) accumulation of hydrogen sulfides, and (iii) glutathione depletion. These abnormalities were not present in brain, which maintains ~30% residual CoQ and is clinically unaffected. In Pdss2kd/kd mice, we also observed low levels of plasma and urine thiosulfate and increased blood C4‐C6 acylcarnitines. We propose that impairment of the sulfide oxidation pathway induced by decreased levels of CoQ causes accumulation of sulfides and consequent inhibition of short‐chain acyl‐CoA dehydrogenase and glutathione depletion, which contributes to increased oxidative stress and kidney failure

Activation of LXRβ inhibits tumor respiration and is synthetically lethal with Bcl‐xL inhibition

Abstract Liver‐X‐receptor (LXR) agonists are known to bear anti‐tumor activity. However, their efficacy is limited and additional insights regarding the underlying mechanism are necessary. By performing transcriptome analysis coupled with global polar metabolite screening, we show that LXR agonists, LXR623 and GW3965, enhance synergistically the anti‐proliferative effect of BH3 mimetics in solid tumor malignancies, which is predominantly mediated by cell death with features of apoptosis and is rescued by exogenous cholesterol. Extracellular flux analysis and carbon tracing experiments (U‐13C‐glucose and U‐13C‐glutamine) reveal that within 5 h, activation of LXRβ results in reprogramming of tumor cell metabolism, leading to suppression of mitochondrial respiration, a phenomenon not observed in normal human astrocytes. LXR activation elicits a suppression of respiratory complexes at the protein level by reducing their stability. In turn, energy starvation drives an integrated stress response (ISR) that up‐regulates pro‐apoptotic Noxa in an ATF4‐dependent manner. Cholesterol and nucleotides rescue from the ISR elicited by LXR agonists and from cell death induced by LXR agonists and BH3 mimetics. In conventional and patient‐derived xenograft models of colon carcinoma, melanoma, and glioblastoma, the combination treatment of ABT263 and LXR agonists reduces tumor sizes significantly stronger than single treatments. Therefore, the combination treatment of LXR agonists and BH3 mimetics might be a viable efficacious treatment approach for solid malignancies

Mitochondrial Dysregulation and Impaired Autophagy in iPSC-Derived Dopaminergic Neurons of Multiple System Atrophy

Multiple system atrophy (MSA) is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects several areas of the CNS, whose pathogenesis is still widely unclear and for which an effective treatment is lacking. We have generated induced pluripotent stem cell-derived dopaminergic neurons from four MSA patients and four healthy controls and from two monozygotic twins discordant for the disease. In this model, we have demonstrated an aberrant autophagic flow and a mitochondrial dysregulation involving respiratory chain activity, mitochondrial content, and CoQ10 biosynthesis. These defective mechanisms may contribute to the onset of the disease, representing potential therapeutic targets