Développement de modèles C. elegans de Sclérose Latérale Amyotrophique
Two recently discovered causative genes for ALS, TDP-43 (TAR DNA Binding Protein 43) and FUS/TLS (Fused in Sarcoma/Translocated in Liposarcoma) are under further investigation regarding their biological roles in neuropathies such as Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). Since TDP-43 and FUS are evolutionarily conserved we turned to the model organism C. elegans to learn more about their biological functions. Here we report that TDP-1 functions in the Insulin/IGF pathway to regulate longevity and the oxidative stress response. We have generated mutant TDP-43 and FUS transgenic lines in C. elegans that recapitulate certain aspects of ALS including motor neuron degeneration and adult-onset paralysis. Proteotoxicity caused by ALS- associated mutations in TDP-43 or FUS also induce TDP-1 expression and consistently, deletion of endogenous tdp-1 rescues mutant TDP-43 and FUS proteotoxicity in C. elegans. These results suggest that chronic induction of wild type TDP-1/TDP-43 by proteotoxicity may actively promote neurodegeneration. We also screened for small- molecule suppressors of mutant TDP-43 and FUS neuronal toxicity in transgenic C. elegans and identified methylene blue and salubrinal as potent suppressors of TDP-43 and FUS toxicity in our models through induction of the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress response. Our results indicate that protein folding homeostasis in the ER may be an important target for therapeutic development in neurodegenerative diseases.
C. elegans TDP-43 TDP-1 FUS/TLS neuropathologies aging oxidative stress endoplasmic reticulum stress neurodegeneration ALS