DJ-1 mutants binding partners: insights into Parkinson's Disease

• Autor(a) principal: Loureiro, Liliana Raquel Rodrigues
• Data de Publicação: 2013
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10773/12583
• topic: Biotecnologia molecular; Doença de Parkinson; Stresse oxidativo

Parkinson´s disease (PD), the second most common progressive neurodegenerative disorder, is a multifactorial disease caused by both genetic and environmental factors. Among the genes associated with PD, DJ-1 is a multifunctional protein involved in oxidative stress response and neuroprotection. DJ-1 mutations, such as L166P, M26I and E163K lead to loss of protein function causing early onset autosomal recessive PD. Moreover, the residue C106 is considered crucial in DJ-1 function as a sensor of oxidative stress. In this study, one missense mutations (E163K) and two engineered mutations in the residue C106 (C106A and C106DD) were produced and characterized in order to evaluate the neuroprotective effect of each mutation and also characterize their dynamic interactome. Structural analysis confirmed the production of all the mutants in the dimeric form, with a molecular weight of approximately 43kDa. Moreover, protein´s thermal stability was assessed by thermal shift and the results showed that the mutant E163K was the less stable and the C106A the most stable. Secondary structure analysis was performed by circular dichroism and revealed similar secondary structures between DJ-1 WT and mutants. In addition, a LC-MS/MS was performed to determine proteins´ contaminants and the majority of the protein contaminants were coming from the expression system and culture medium used in proteins´ production. Moreover, neuroprotection assays revealed that DJ-1 WT did not protect SH-SY5Y cells under oxidative stress conditions. The dynamic interactome of DJ-1 WT and mutants C106DD, E163K and C106A was characterized under oxidative stress conditions. A wide number of binding partners were identified and for some of them quantification in the different conditions was also determined. These interactors have a broad range of functions but the majority are associated with cellular response to oxidative stress. The study of DJ-1 mutations is very important, since it gives elucidations into DJ-1 WT functions and related disease mechanisms. In this way, the putative DJ-1 WT interactors identified still lack validation, but from these characterized dynamic interactomes further elucidations can be obtained into Parkinson’s Disease pathology and potential new targets for PD prevention and therapy, like ATP-dependent RNA helicase DDX3X herein identified as new dynamic interactor of DJ-1.