1) Amperometry and Electron Microscopy show Stress Granules Induce Homotypic Fusion of Catecholamine Vesicles
An overreactive stress granule (SG) pathway and long-lived, stable SGs formation are thought to participate in the progress of neurodegenerative diseases (NDs). To understand if and how SGs contribute to disorders of neurotransmitter release in NDs, we examined the interaction between extracellular isolated SGs and vesicles. Amperometry shows that the vesicular content increases and dynamics of vesicle opening slow down after vesicles are treated with SGs, suggesting larger vesicles are formed. Data from transmission electron microscopy (TEM) clearly shows that a portion of large dense-core vesicles (LDCVs) with double/multiple cores appear, thus confirming that SGs induce homotypic fusion between LDCVs. This might be a protective step to help cells to survive following high oxidative stress. A hypothetical mechanism is proposed whereby enriched mRNA in the shell of SGs is likely to bind intrinsically disordered protein (IDP) regions of vesicle associated membrane protein (VAMP) driving a disrupted membrane between two closely buddled vesicles to fuse with each other to form double-core vesicles. Our results show that SGs induce homotypic fusion of LDCVs, providing better understanding of how SGs intervene in pathological processes and opening a new direction to investigations of SGs involved neurodegenerative disease.
This work has been published on Angewandte International Edition Chemie (2024, 63, e202400422).
https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.202400422(si apre in una nuova finestra)2) Uncovering the non-enzymatic redox pathway of stress granules using an intracellular electrochemical nanosensor with single-entity resolution
The spontaneous electrochemical activities of biomolecular condensates represent a new fundamental functioning mechanism in biochemistry and cell biology. However, our understanding of the underlying molecular mechanism and the interfacial field-dependent chemical activities remain limited. This is due to the lack of technology to probe such activities in real-time and at a single-condensate level. Here we design and implement a collision-based electrochemical nanosensor that enables probing the spontaneous redox activities of stress granules (SGs) at a single-condensate level in living cells. We show that ex-vivo separated SGs drive the spontaneous redox reactions depending on their own interfacial potentials and the constituents of the solution system. Surprisingly, water molecules, instead of solvated oxygen, are the main chemical origin of the redox activities of SGs. Finally, we demonstrate the application of this electrochemical nanosensor in in-situ probing the generation of hydrogen peroxide from SGs in mammalian cells and show that the electrochemical environment of the cells can regulate the redox activity of SGs. This work uncovers the mechanisms encoding the non-enzymatic redox activities of SGs and demonstrates a key fundamental technological capability that can be highly useful in exploring the intracellular electroactive pathways of macroscale assemblies.
This work has been submitted to Nature Nanotechnology (2024 in submission).
3) Quantitative Measurement of Hydrogen Peroxide in Individual Stress Granules in Single Cells with Platinized Nanotip Electrodes
Stress granules (SGs) play a critical role in promoting stress responses and preventing the accumulation of misfolded proteins which are closely related to the pathogenesis of neurodegenerative diseases. The quantification of reactive oxygen species (ROS) content in SGs is important for studying the mechanisms of SGs-involved oxidative stress in diseases, and yet it is incredibly difficult to measure the tiny amount of ROS in the SGs in single cells, especially in nerve cells containing secretory vesicles encapsulating electroactive neurotransmitters like catecholamines. Herein, a high-density coated contiguous platinum-petal carbon nanotip electrode (cPt-CNE) with high electrocatalytic performance towards H2O2 (the main ROS in SGs) has been specifically designed for this purpose. This allows the novel amperometric measurement of ROS content in individual SGs within single living cells at low potential to distinguish them from intracellular vesicles, and differentiate molecules inside SGs from those within vesicles. We observe that the dynamics of molecule release from SGs to the electrode is much faster compared to the transmitter released from the coexisted intracellular vesicles.
This work is in progress.