First Author | Mueller KA | Year | 2018 |
Journal | Sci Rep | Volume | 8 |
Issue | 1 | Pages | 11355 |
PubMed ID | 30054496 | Mgi Jnum | J:269619 |
Mgi Id | MGI:6271600 | Doi | 10.1038/s41598-018-29319-4 |
Citation | Mueller KA, et al. (2018) Hippo Signaling Pathway Dysregulation in Human Huntington's Disease Brain and Neuronal Stem Cells. Sci Rep 8(1):11355 |
abstractText | The Hippo signaling pathway is involved in organ size regulation and tumor suppression. Although inhibition of Hippo leads to tumorigenesis, activation of Hippo may play a role in neurodegeneration. Specifically, activation of the upstream regulator, mammalian sterile 20 (STE20)-like kinase 1 (MST1), reduces activity of the transcriptional co-activator Yes-Associated Protein (YAP), thereby mediating oxidative stress-induced neuronal death. Here, we investigated the possible role of this pathway in Huntington's disease (HD) pathogenesis. Our results demonstrate a significant increase in phosphorylated MST1, the active form, in post-mortem HD cortex and in the brains of CAG knock-in Hdh(Q111/Q111) mice. YAP nuclear localization was also decreased in HD post-mortem cortex and in neuronal stem cells derived from HD patients. Moreover, there was a significant increase in phosphorylated YAP, the inactive form, in HD post-mortem cortex and in Hdh(Q111/Q111) brain. In addition, YAP was found to interact with huntingtin (Htt) and the chaperone 14-3-3, however this interaction was not altered in the presence of mutant Htt. Lastly, YAP/TEAD interactions and expression of Hippo pathway genes were altered in HD. Together, these results demonstrate that activation of MST1 together with a decrease in nuclear YAP could significantly contribute to transcriptional dysregulation in HD. |