UCL Discovery
UCL home » Library Services » Electronic resources » UCL Discovery

Dysregulated mitophagy and mitochondrial organization in optic atrophy due to OPA1 mutations

Liao, C; Ashley, N; Diot, A; Morten, K; Phadwal, K; Williams, A; Fearnley, I; ... Poulton, J; + view all (2017) Dysregulated mitophagy and mitochondrial organization in optic atrophy due to OPA1 mutations. Neurology , 88 (2) pp. 131-142. 10.1212/WNL.0000000000003491. Green open access

[thumbnail of Reilly_Neurology-2017-Liao-131-42.pdf]
Preview
Text
Reilly_Neurology-2017-Liao-131-42.pdf - Published Version

Download (3MB) | Preview

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To investigate mitophagy in 5 patients with severe dominantly inherited optic atrophy (DOA), caused by depletion of OPA1 (a protein that is essential for mitochondrial fusion), compared with healthy controls. METHODS: Patients with severe DOA (DOA plus) had peripheral neuropathy, cognitive regression, and epilepsy in addition to loss of vision. We quantified mitophagy in dermal fibroblasts, using 2 high throughput imaging systems, by visualizing colocalization of mitochondrial fragments with engulfing autophagosomes. RESULTS: Fibroblasts from 3 biallelic OPA1(−/−) patients with severe DOA had increased mitochondrial fragmentation and mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA)–depleted cells due to decreased levels of OPA1 protein. Similarly, in siRNA-treated control fibroblasts, profound OPA1 knockdown caused mitochondrial fragmentation, loss of mtDNA, impaired mitochondrial function, and mitochondrial mislocalization. Compared to controls, basal mitophagy (abundance of autophagosomes colocalizing with mitochondria) was increased in (1) biallelic patients, (2) monoallelic patients with DOA plus, and (3) OPA1 siRNA–treated control cultures. Mitophagic flux was also increased. Genetic knockdown of the mitophagy protein ATG7 confirmed this by eliminating differences between patient and control fibroblasts. CONCLUSIONS: We demonstrated increased mitophagy and excessive mitochondrial fragmentation in primary human cultures associated with DOA plus due to biallelic OPA1 mutations. We previously found that increased mitophagy (mitochondrial recycling) was associated with visual loss in another mitochondrial optic neuropathy, Leber hereditary optic neuropathy (LHON). Combined with our LHON findings, this implicates excessive mitochondrial fragmentation, dysregulated mitophagy, and impaired response to energetic stress in the pathogenesis of mitochondrial optic neuropathies, potentially linked with mitochondrial mislocalization and mtDNA depletion.

Type: Article
Title: Dysregulated mitophagy and mitochondrial organization in optic atrophy due to OPA1 mutations
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1212/WNL.0000000000003491
Publisher version: http://doi.org/10.1212/WNL.0000000000003491
Language: English
Additional information: Copyright © 2016 The Author(s). Published by Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. on behalf of the American Academy of Neurology This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Licence 4.0 (CC BY), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Keywords: Science & Technology, Life Sciences & Biomedicine, Clinical Neurology, Neurosciences & Neurology, DNA MUTATION, AUTOPHAGY, CELLS, DISEASE, PATHOGENESIS, FUSION, MOUSE, MTDNA
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > Institute of Ophthalmology
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology > Department of Neuromuscular Diseases
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1539631
Downloads since deposit
91Downloads
Download activity - last month
Download activity - last 12 months
Downloads by country - last 12 months

Archive Staff Only

View Item View Item