Cited by 223Alzheimer's disease research and treatmentsAutophagy in Disease and TherapyHeat shock proteins research

Acetylated tau inhibits chaperone-mediated autophagy and promotes tau pathology propagation in mice

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Caballero, Benjamin, Bourdenx, Mathieu, Luengo, Enrique, Diaz, Antonio, Sohn, Peter Dongmin, Chen, Xu, Wang, Chao, Juste, Yves R. +13 more·2021·Nature Communications

Abstract

Disrupted homeostasis of the microtubule binding protein tau is a shared feature of a set of neurodegenerative disorders known as tauopathies. Acetylation of soluble tau is an early pathological event in neurodegeneration. In this work, we find that a large fraction of neuronal tau is degraded by chaperone-mediated autophagy (CMA) whereas, upon acetylation, tau is preferentially degraded by macroautophagy and endosomal microautophagy. Rerouting of acetylated tau to these other autophagic pathways originates, in part, from the inhibitory effect that acetylated tau exerts on CMA and results in its extracellular release. In fact, experimental blockage of CMA enhances cell-to-cell propagation of pathogenic tau in a mouse model of tauopathy. Furthermore, analysis of lysosomes isolated from brains of patients with tauopathies demonstrates similar molecular mechanisms leading to CMA dysfunction. This study reveals that CMA failure in tauopathy brains alters tau homeostasis and could contribute to aggravate disease progression.

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Crossref · 10.1038/s41467-021-22501-9

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  • The balance between cell proliferation and programmed cell death is altered in LSDs as well as neurodegenerative disorders.

    “The balance between cell proliferation and programmed cell death is altered in LSDs as well as neurodegenerative disorders.26,27”

    From The lysosome and proteostatic stress at the intersection of pediatric neurological disorders and adult neurodegenerative diseases (2025) · cites this paper as [27]

    The Results section, “CMA dynamics are altered in AD patient brains” (page unavailable), reports impaired chaperone-mediated autophagy in Alzheimer’s disease, not a change in the balance between cell proliferation and programmed cell death. Searches for that balance, apoptosis, and lysosomal storage disorders found no passage in our copy addressing the claim. (LLM, conf=0.76)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured
  • Acetylation of tau is an early pathological feature of neurodegeneration; acetylated tau inhibits its degradation, promotes pathological aggregation and propagation, and contributes to tauopathy.

    “In addition, the acetylation of tau is an early pathological feature of neurodegeneration. Acetylated tau inhibits its degradation, promotes pathological aggregation and propagation, and contributes to tauopathy [46–51].”
  • Blockage of CMA leads to rerouting of some pathogenic forms of MAPT/tau toward endosomal microautophagy, promoting fusion of late endosomes with the plasma membrane and subsequent extraneuronal release of MAPT/tau variants, thus contributing to MAPT/tau propagation.

    “Blockage of CMA leads to rerouting of some of the pathogenic forms of MAPT/tau toward endosomal microautophagy, as both pathways share the same chaperone, HSPA8, and this promotes fusion of late endosomes with the plasma membrane and subsequent extraneuronal release of the MAPT/tau variants, thus contributing to MAPT/tau propagation (Caballero et al, 2021).”

    From Autophagy in major human diseases (2021) · cites this paper as Caballero et al, 2021

  • Mutations and posttranslational modifications of MAPT/tau, such as acetylation, not only prevent MAPT/tau degradation by CMA but also inhibit normal CMA functioning.

    “However, mutations and posttranslational modifications of this protein, such as acetylation, not only prevent MAPT/tau degradation by CMA but also inhibit normal CMA functioning (Caballero et al, 2018; Caballero et al, 2021).”

    From Autophagy in major human diseases (2021) · cites this paper as Caballero et al, 2021

  • Chaperone-mediated autophagy contributes to degradation of a large fraction of neuronal MAPT/tau under physiological conditions.

    “Chaperone‐mediated autophagy also contributes to degradation of a large fraction of neuronal MAPT/tau under physiological conditions (Caballero et al, 2018; Caballero et al, 2021).”

    From Autophagy in major human diseases (2021) · cites this paper as Caballero et al, 2021

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Research works printed but not linked: 1

  1. [67]Morris M Maeda S Vossel K Mucke L The many faces of Tau Neuron 2011 70 410 426 10.1016/j.neuron.2011.04.009 21555069 PMC3319390 · DOI · Paper page

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Authors
Caballero, B., Bourdenx, M., Luengo, E., Diaz, A., Sohn, P. D., Chen, X., Wang, C., Juste, Y. R., Wegmann, S., Patel, B., Young, Z. T., Kuo, S. Y., Rodriguez-Navarro, J. A., Shao, H., Lopez, M. G., Karch, C. M., Goate, A. M., Gestwicki, J. E., Hyman, B. T., Gan, L., & Cuervo, A. M.
Affiliations
  • Albert Einstein College of Medicine (US)
  • Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR)
  • Weill Cornell Medicine (US)
  • Harvard University (US)
  • University of California, San Francisco (US)
  • Washington University in St. Louis (US)
  • Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (US)
Venue
Nature Communications
Published
2021-04-14
Volume
12
Issue
1
Pages
2238-2238
ISSN
2041-1723 (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W3154991192
Cited by
223
References
92
Citations by year
2026: 29 · 2025: 61 · 2024: 30 · 2023: 47 · 2022: 42 · 2021: 14
FWCI
20.89
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Nature Communications (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Digital Commons@Becker (Washington University School of Medicine) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
  • RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
  • eScholarship (California Digital Library) (submittedVersion)
  • eScholarship (California Digital Library) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
  • DZNE Pub (submittedVersion, other-oa)
Funders
  • Fundación Tatiana Pérez de Guzmán el Bueno (Fellowship)
  • U.S. Department of Health & Human Services | National Institutes of Health (T32 GM007491)
  • Charles H. Revson Foundation (CP13-00234)
  • Rainwaters Foundation
  • U.S. Department of Health & Human Services | NIH | National Institute on Aging (AG05681, AG058674, AG036884, AG021904, AG054108, AG031782, AG038072)
  • Rainwaters Foundation JPB Foundation
  • U.S. Department of Health & Human Services | NIH | National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NS100717)
  • Rainwaters Foundation Backus Foundation JPB Foundation
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Physiology › Alzheimer's disease research and treatments
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Epidemiology › Autophagy in Disease and Therapy
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Heat shock proteins research
Keywords
tau acetylation, chaperone-mediated autophagy, tauopathy, tau degradation, macroautophagy, microautophagy, lysosomes, cell-to-cell transmission, neurodegeneration
MeSH terms
Chaperone-Mediated Autophagy, Acetylation, Animals, Brain, Female, Humans, Male, Mice, Inbred C57BL, Neurons, tau Proteins, Tauopathies, Mice

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