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Autophagy-linked FYVE protein (Alfy) promotes autophagic removal of misfolded proteins involved in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS)

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Abstract

Autophagy-linked FYVE (Alfy) is a protein implicated in the selective degradation of aggregated proteins. In our present study, we found that Alfy was recruited into the aggregated G93A-SOD1 in transgenic mice with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). We demonstrated that Alfy overexpression could decrease the expression of mutant proteins via the autophagosome-lysosome pathway, and thereby, the toxicity of mutant proteins was reduced. The clearance of the mutant proteins in NSC34 cells was significantly inhibited in an Alfy knockdown cellular model. We therefore deduced that Alfy translocalization likely is involved in the pathogenesis of ALS. Alfy may be developed into a useful target for ALS therapy.

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Acknowledgments

The mouse motor neuron hybridoma line, NSC34, was provided by Dr. Rugao Liu (University of Louisville, Louisville, KY). We are grateful to Dr. Anne Simonsen (University of Oslo, Norway) for the kind gifts of plasmids Alfy(2981-3526).

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Correspondence to Chunyan Li.

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Editor: T. Okamoto

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Han, H., Wei, W., Duan, W. et al. Autophagy-linked FYVE protein (Alfy) promotes autophagic removal of misfolded proteins involved in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). In Vitro Cell.Dev.Biol.-Animal 51, 249–263 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11626-014-9832-4

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