ABSTRACT
Haploinsufficiency of progranulin (PGRN) due to mutations in the granulin (GRN) gene causes frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD), and complete loss of PGRN leads to a lysosomal storage disorder, neuronal ceroid lipofuscinosis (NCL). Accumulating evidence suggests that PGRN is essential for proper lysosomal function, but the precise mechanisms involved are not known. Here, we show that PGRN facilitates neuronal uptake and lysosomal delivery of prosaposin (PSAP), the precursor of saposin peptides that are essential for lysosomal glycosphingolipid degradation. We found reduced levels of PSAP in neurons both in mice deficient in PGRN and in human samples from FTLD patients due to GRN mutations. Furthermore, mice with reduced PSAP expression demonstrated FTLD-like pathology and behavioural changes. Thus, our data demonstrate a role of PGRN in PSAP lysosomal trafficking and suggest that impaired lysosomal trafficking of PSAP is an underlying disease mechanism for NCL and FTLD due to GRN mutations.
Subject(s)
Frontotemporal Lobar Degeneration/genetics , Frontotemporal Lobar Degeneration/metabolism , Intercellular Signaling Peptides and Proteins/deficiency , Intercellular Signaling Peptides and Proteins/genetics , Intercellular Signaling Peptides and Proteins/metabolism , Mutation , Adaptor Proteins, Vesicular Transport/metabolism , Animals , Disease Models, Animal , Female , Frontotemporal Lobar Degeneration/pathology , Granulins , Haploinsufficiency , Humans , Lysosomes/metabolism , Male , Mice , Mice, Inbred C57BL , Mice, Knockout , Neuronal Ceroid-Lipofuscinoses/etiology , Neuronal Ceroid-Lipofuscinoses/genetics , Neuronal Ceroid-Lipofuscinoses/metabolism , Neurons/metabolism , Progranulins , Protein TransportABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Rapid diagnosis for time-sensitive illnesses such as stroke, cardiac arrest, and septic shock is essential for successful treatment. Much attention has therefore focused on new strategies for rapid and objective diagnosis, such as Point-of-Care Tests (PoCT) for blood biomarkers. Here we use a biomimicry-based approach to demonstrate a new diagnostic platform, based on enzymes tethered to nanoparticles (NPs). As proof of principle, we use oriented immobilization of pyruvate kinase (PK) and luciferase (Luc) on silica NPs to achieve rapid and sensitive detection of neuron-specific enolase (NSE), a clinically relevant biomarker for multiple diseases ranging from acute brain injuries to lung cancer. We hypothesize that an approach capitalizing on the speed and catalytic nature of enzymatic reactions would enable fast and sensitive biomarker detection, suitable for PoCT devices. METHODS AND FINDINGS: We performed in-vitro, animal model, and human subject studies. First, the efficiency of coupled enzyme activities when tethered to NPs versus when in solution was tested, demonstrating a highly sensitive and rapid detection of physiological and pathological concentrations of NSE. Next, in rat stroke models the enzyme-based assay was able in minutes to show a statistically significant increase in NSE levels in samples taken 1 hour before and 0, 1, 3 and 6 hours after occlusion of the distal middle cerebral artery. Finally, using the tethered enzyme assay for detection of NSE in samples from 20 geriatric human patients, we show that our data match well (r = 0.815) with the current gold standard for biomarker detection, ELISA-with a major difference being that we achieve detection in 10 minutes as opposed to the several hours required for traditional ELISA. CONCLUSIONS: Oriented enzyme immobilization conferred more efficient coupled activity, and thus higher assay sensitivity, than non-tethered enzymes. Together, our findings provide proof of concept for using oriented immobilization of active enzymes on NPs as the basis for a highly rapid and sensitive biomarker detection platform. This addresses a key challenge in developing a PoCT platform for time sensitive and difficult to diagnose pathologies.
