The AAA+ chaperone VCP disaggregates Tau fibrils and generates aggregate seeds in a cellular system.

I Saha, Patricia Yuste Checa, Silva Padilha M Da, Qiang Guo, R Körner, Hauke Holthusen, VA Trinkaus, Irina Dudanova, Ruben Fernandez-Busnadiego, Wolfgang Baumeister, DW Sanders, Saurabh Gautam, Marc Diamond, F. Ulrich Hartl, Mark Hipp*

*Corresponding author for this work

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

    25 Citations (Scopus)
    121 Downloads (Pure)

    Abstract

    Amyloid-like aggregates of the microtubule-associated protein Tau are associated with several neurodegenerative disorders including Alzheimer's disease. The existence of cellular machinery for the removal of such aggregates has remained unclear, as specialized disaggregase chaperones are thought to be absent in mammalian cells. Here we show in cell culture and in neurons that the hexameric ATPase valosin-containing protein (VCP) is recruited to ubiquitylated Tau fibrils, resulting in their efficient disaggregation. Aggregate clearance depends on the functional cooperation of VCP with heat shock 70 kDa protein (Hsp70) and the ubiquitin-proteasome machinery. While inhibition of VCP activity stabilizes large Tau aggregates, disaggregation by VCP generates seeding-active Tau species as byproduct. These findings identify VCP as a core component of the machinery for the removal of neurodegenerative disease aggregates and suggest that its activity can be associated with enhanced aggregate spreading in tauopathies.
    Original languageEnglish
    Article number560
    Number of pages17
    JournalNature Communications
    Volume14
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2-Feb-2023

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