Publications related to Development of novel methods and tools to decipher the huntingtin post-translation modifications code

Investigating the intra-molecular and inter-molecular effects of post-translational modifications on intrinsically disordered protein regions and structured protein regions

Post-translational modifications (PTMs) play a pivotal role in regulating protein structure, interaction, and function. Aberrant PTM patterns are associated with diseases. Moreover, individual PTMs have a complex interaction with each other, known as PTM c ...

EPFL2024

An integrative approach to elucidate the mechanisms and dynamics of Huntingtin aggregation and inclusion formation in neuronal models of Huntington's Disease

Nathan Alain Denis Riguet

Despite the fact that the gene responsible for Huntington's disease (HD) is known, we still do not understand the underlying mechanisms leading to neurodegeneration and death. Identifying and understanding the mechanisms controlling mutant huntingtin (mHtt ...

EPFL2022

N-terminal mutant huntingtin deposition correlates with CAG repeat length and symptom onset, but not neuronal loss in Huntington's disease

Hilal Lashuel, Lorène Aeschbach, Nathan Alain Denis Riguet

Huntington's disease (HD) is caused by a CAG repeat expansion mutation in the gene encoding the huntingtin (Htt) protein, with mutant Htt protein subsequently forming aggregates within the brain. Mutant Htt is a current target for novel therapeutic strateg ...

ACADEMIC PRESS INC ELSEVIER SCIENCE2022

Diverse cell-specific patterns of alternative polyadenylation in Drosophila

Bart Deplancke, Sandy Lee

Most genes in higher eukaryotes express isoforms with distinct 3' untranslated regions (3' UTRs), generated by alternative polyadenylation (APA). Since 3' UTRs are predominant locations of post-transcriptional regulation, APA can render such programs condi ...

Nature Portfolio2022

Towards automating de novo protein design for novel functionalities: controlling protein folds and protein-protein interactions

Zander Harteveld

The sheer size of the protein sequence space is massive: a protein of 100 residues can have 20^100 possible sequence combinations; and knowing that this exceeds the number of atoms in the universe, the chance of randomly discovering a stable new sequence w ...

EPFL2022

A New Chemoenzymatic Semisynthetic Approach Provides Insight into the Role of Phosphorylation beyond Exon1 of Huntingtin and Reveals N-Terminal Fragment Length-Dependent Distinct Mechanisms of Aggregation

Hilal Lashuel, Andreas Reif, Jonathan Jean-Pierre Ricci, Gopinath Pushparathinam, Rajasekhar Kolla, Iman Rostami

Huntington’s disease is a neurodegenerative dis- order caused by the expansion of a polyglutamine repeat (>36Q) in the N-terminal domain of the huntingtin protein (Htt), which renders the protein or fragments thereof more prone to aggregate and form inclus ...

2021

Investigating Crosstalk Among PTMs Provides Novel Insight Into the Structural Basis Underlying the Differential Effects of Nt17 PTMs on Mutant Httex1 Aggregation

Hilal Lashuel, Anass Chiki, Matteo Dal Peraro, Luciano Andres Abriata, Lucien Fabrice Krapp, Driss Boudeffa, Rajasekhar Kolla, Zhidian Zhang, Iman Rostami

Post-translational modifications (PTMs) within the first 17 amino acids (Nt17) of the Huntingtin protein (Htt) have been shown to inhibit the aggregation and attenuate the toxicity of mutant Htt proteins in vitro and in various models of Huntington’s disea ...

2021

Pharmacological characterization of mutant huntingtin aggregate-directed PET imaging tracer candidates

Hilal Lashuel, Anass Chiki

Huntington's disease (HD) is caused by a CAG trinucleotide repeat expansion in the first exon of the huntingtin (HTT) gene coding for the huntingtin (HTT) protein. The misfolding and consequential aggregation of CAG-expanded mutant HTT (mHTT) underpin HD p ...

Nature Portfolio2021

The Nt17 Domain and its Helical Conformation Regulate the Aggregation, Cellular Properties and Neurotoxicity of Mutant Huntingtin Exon 1

Giovanni Dietler, Hilal Lashuel, Anass Chiki, Francesco Simone Ruggeri, Anne-Laure Mahul Mellier, Sophie Vieweg, Sean Michael Deguire, Urszula Beata Cendrowska, Nathan Alain Denis Riguet

Converging evidence points to the N-terminal domain comprising the first 17 amino acids of the Huntingtin protein (Nt17) as a key regulator of its aggregation, cellular properties and toxicity. In this study, we further investigated the interplay between N ...

Elsevier2021

Enforced dimerization between XBP1s and ATF6f enhances the protective effects of the UPR in models of neurodegeneration

Hilal Lashuel, Sonia Donzelli

Alteration to endoplasmic reticulum (ER) proteostasis is observed in a variety of neurodegenerative diseases associated with abnormal protein aggregation. Activation of the unfolded protein response (UPR) enables an adaptive reaction to recover ER proteost ...

2021

Assessment of transferable forcefields for protein simulations attests improved description of disordered states and secondary structure propensities, and hints at multi-protein systems as the next challenge for optimization

Matteo Dal Peraro, Luciano Andres Abriata

Continuous assessment of transferable forcefields for molecular simulations is essential to identify their weaknesses and direct improvement efforts. The latest efforts focused on better describing disordered proteins while retaining proper description of ...

2021

Ultrasensitive quantitative measurement of huntingtin phosphorylation at residue S13

Hilal Lashuel, Sean Michael Deguire, Lara Petricca

Huntington's disease (HD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder caused by an expansion of a CAG triplet repeat (encoding for a polyglutamine tract) within the first exon of the huntingtin gene. Expression of the mutant huntingtin (mHTT) protein can r ...

ACADEMIC PRESS INC ELSEVIER SCIENCE2020

TBK1 phosphorylates mutant Huntingtin and suppresses its aggregation and toxicity in Huntington's disease models

Hilal Lashuel, Anass Chiki, Johan Auwerx, Ramanath Narayana Hegde, Laurent Mouchiroud, Lara Petricca

Phosphorylation of the N‐terminal domain of the huntingtin (HTT ) protein has emerged as an important regulator of its localization, structure, aggregation, clearance and toxicity. However, validation of the effect of bona fide phosphorylation in vivo and ...

2020

Extent of N-terminus exposure of monomeric alpha-synuclein determines its aggregation propensity

Hilal Lashuel, Anass Chiki

As an intrinsically disordered protein, monomeric alpha-synuclein (aSyn) occupies a large conformational space. Certain conformations lead to aggregation prone and non-aggregation prone intermediates, but identifying these within the dynamic ensemble of mo ...

Nature Research2020

Gold nanoparticles as a new tool in amyloid studies

Urszula Beata Cendrowska

The misfolding and self-assembly of proteins into fibrils is a hallmark of several neurodegenerative and systemic diseases. These disease-associated proteins have the propensity to form fibrils with a cross-Î² sheet structure, called amyloids. Amyloids can ...

EPFL2020

Development of chemical biology tools to reveal the function and organization of the silenced chromatin state

Nora Guidotti

Effector proteins are recruited to chromatin via transient interactions between their reader domains and histone post-translational modification (PTM) patterns. These interactions form signaling pathways that control gene expression or repression and which ...

EPFL2020

Site-Specific Phosphorylation of Huntingtin Exon 1 Recombinant Proteins Enabled by the Discovery of Novel Kinases

Hilal Lashuel, Anass Chiki, Ramanath Narayana Hegde, Luciano Andres Abriata, Andreas Reif, Driss Boudeffa, Jonathan Jean-Pierre Ricci

Post-translational modifications (PTMs) within the first 17 amino acids (Nt17) of exon 1 of the Huntingtin protein (Httex1) play important roles in modulating its cellular properties and functions in health and disease. In particular, phosphorylation of th ...

2020

Protein Engineering Tools to Explore the Function of Protein Post-Translational Modifications for Chromatin and Microtubule Cytoskeletal Biology

Ninad Dilip Agashe

Protein post-translational modifications (PTMs) play a crucial role in expanding the protein diversity and are one of the major mechanisms through which cells respond to ever changing environmental cues. The function of two of the most important cellular c ...

EPFL2019

alpha-Synuclein O-GlcNAcylation alters aggregation and toxicity, revealing certain residues as potential inhibitors of Parkinson's disease

Hilal Lashuel, Anne-Laure Mahul Mellier

A compelling link is emerging between the posttranslational modification O-GlcNAc and protein aggregation. A prime example is alpha-synuclein, which forms toxic aggregates that are associated with neurodegeneration in Parkinson's and related diseases. alph ...

National Academy of Sciences2019

The Role of Post-translational Modifications on the Energy Landscape of Huntingtin N-Terminus

Hilal Lashuel, Charlotte Julie Caroline Gehin

Huntington disease is a neurodegenerative disease characterized by a polymorphic tract of polyglutamine repeats in exon 1 of the huntingtin protein, which is thought to be responsible for protein aggregation and neuronal death. The polyglutamine tract is p ...

2019