Pathogenic Mechanisms of Cytosolic and Membrane-Enriched α-Synuclein Converge on Fatty Acid Homeostasis

Abstract

α-Synuclein (αS) plays a key role in Parkinson's disease. Although Parkinson's disease is typically “sporadic,” inherited αS missense mutations provide crucial insights into molecular mechanisms. Here, we examine two clinical mutants, E46K and G51D, which are both in the conserved N-terminus that mediates transient αS-membrane interactions. However, E46K increases and G51D decreases αS-membrane interactions. Previously, we amplified E46K via the 11-residue repeat motifs, creating “3K” (E35K+E46K+E61K). Here, we engineered these motifs to amplify G51D (V40D+G51D+V66D = “3D”) and systematically compared E46K/3K versus G51D/3D. We found that G51D increased cytosolic αS in neural cells and 3D aggravates this. G51D, and 3D even more, reduced αS multimer-to-monomer (αS60:αS14) ratio. Both amplified variants caused cellular stress in rat primary neurons and reduced growth in human neuroblastoma cells. Importantly, both 3K- and 3D-induced stress was ameliorated by pharmacologically inhibiting stearoyl-CoA desaturase or by conditioning the cells in palmitic (16:0) or myristic (14:0) acid. SCD inhibition lowered lipid-droplet accumulation in both 3D- and 3K-expressing cells and benefitted G51D by normalizing multimer:monomer ratio, as reported previously for E46K. Our findings suggest that, despite divergent cytosol/membrane partitioning, both G51D and E46K neurotoxicity can be prevented by decreasing fatty-acid unsaturation as a common therapeutic approach.

SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT α-Synuclein (αS) dyshomeostasis is linked to Parkinson's disease. Here we focus on two contrasting familial-Parkinson's disease αS mutants, E46K and G51D, that alter αS membrane association in opposite directions (E46K increases, G51D decreases it). Taking advantage of αS repeat structure, here we designed αS “3D,” an amplified G51D variant (V40D+G51D+V66D). αS 3D further enhanced G51D's cytosolic enrichment. Systematic comparison of G51D/3D with membrane-enriched E46K/its amplified variant 3K revealed that both can elicit stress in human neural cells and primary rodent neurons. This toxicity can be ameliorated by inhibiting stearoyl-CoA desaturase or by saturated fatty acid conditioning. Thus, despite divergent membrane binding, both G51D and E46K αS dyshomeostasis are mitigated by altering fatty acid saturation as a shared target.