Delaying aging and the aging-associated decline in protein homeostasis by inhibition of tryptophan degradation.

Autors de IIS La Fe

• Rafael Vázquez Manrique

  Autor

Autors aliens a IIS La Fe

• van der Goot AT
• Zhu W
• Seinstra RI
• Dettmer K
• Michels H
• Farina F
• Krijnen J
• Melki R
• Buijsman RC
• Ruiz Silva M
• Thijssen KL
• Kema IP
• Neri C
• Oefner PJ
• Nollen EA

Grups d'Investigació

• Biomedicina Molecular, Celular y Genómica

  

  Leader

  José María Millán Salvador

Abstract

Toxicity of aggregation-prone proteins is thought to play an important role in aging and age-related neurological diseases like Parkinson and Alzheimer's diseases. Here, we identify tryptophan 2,3-dioxygenase (tdo-2), the first enzyme in the kynurenine pathway of tryptophan degradation, as a metabolic regulator of age-related a-synuclein toxicity in a Caenorhabditis elegans model. Depletion of tdo-2 also suppresses toxicity of other heterologous aggregation-prone proteins, including amyloid-ß and polyglutamine proteins, and endogenous metastable proteins that are sensors of normal protein homeostasis. This finding suggests that tdo-2 functions as a general regulator of protein homeostasis. Analysis of metabolite levels in C. elegans strains with mutations in enzymes that act downstream of tdo-2 indicates that this suppression of toxicity is independent of downstream metabolites in the kynurenine pathway. Depletion of tdo-2 increases tryptophan levels, and feeding worms with extra L-tryptophan also suppresses toxicity, suggesting that tdo-2 regulates proteotoxicity through tryptophan. Depletion of tdo-2 extends lifespan in these worms. Together, these results implicate tdo-2 as a metabolic switch of age-related protein homeostasis and lifespan. With TDO and Indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase as evolutionarily conserved human orthologs of TDO-2, intervening with tryptophan metabolism may offer avenues to reducing proteotoxicity in aging and age-related diseases.