Autophagy has been analyzed in a variety of LSDs with different severities of the phenotype, different tissues involved, and different types of storage molecules. shows the main findings obtained and displays some examples of the results obtained by these studies. In spite of all the above-mentioned differences among the diseases and samples analyzed, a common theme can be recognized (see also ref.
115 for a further review). In most cases there is an impairment of autophagic flux, causing a secondary accumulation of autophagy substrates such as polyubiquitinated proteins, p62/SQSTM1 and dysfunctional mitochondria, on one end, and an increase in factors involved in autophagosome formation, such as BECN1, as an attempt to compensate for the impaired autophagic flux, on the other. Accordingly, LSDs can be seen primarily as “autophagy disorders.”
10 Interestingly, a defect in autophagic lysosome formation, due to abnormal MTOR activation, is reported in several LSDs.
3Impairment of autophagy and accumulation of autophagy substrates in LSDs suggest that at least some mechanisms underlying the LSD phenotype may be similar to other diseases in which defective autophagy has been observed. In particular, many neurodegenerative diseases that affect the aging population including Alzheimer, Parkinson and Huntington diseases, exhibit the presence of intraneuronal accumulations of protein aggregates as key elements of their pathogenic cascades. Yet the potential importance of macroautophagy as a critical player in the formation of these aggregates was largely unappreciated prior to studies in which key autophagy regulatory proteins were conditionally knocked out in mouse models. Genetic ablation in the CNS of
Atg5 and
Atg7, each critical for the formation of autophagosomes in cells, was found to cause progressive neurological disease in mice accompanied the accumulation of protein aggregates and inclusion bodies, and by neuron death.
116,117 Subsequent studies further revealed the critical role of ATG5 and ATG7 in maintaining normal integrity of axons, particularly for Purkinje cells, which develop early and progressive neuroaxonal dystrophy characterized by accumulation of autophagosome-like membrane structures in swellings along the length of the axon.
117,118A further link between LSDs and neurodegenerative disorders comes from studies showing accumulation of phosphorylated-tau aggregates and neurofibrillary tangles, which are typically detected in patients with Alzheimer disease, in LSDs such as Niemann-Pick type C
119 and mucopolysaccharidoses,
120 and deficient degradation of amyloid precursor protein (APP) in sphingolipidoses.
65 Parallels between the neuropathology of Niemann-Pick C and several age-dependent protein aggregation neurodegenerative disorders are striking, and include the accumulation of phosphorylated tau and α-synuclein,
121-124 and in some cases amyloid β.
125 The recent identification of a defect of lysosomal acidification in a murine model of Alzheimer disease
126 and of pathogenic lysosomal depletion in a mouse model of Parkinson disease
127 further support a connection between lysosomal dysfunction and neurodegenerative diseases.
The acknowledged importance of autophagy in maintaining normal bulk protein recycling in these diseases has led to interest in whether pharmacological stimulation of autophagy could provide therapeutic benefit by delaying or preventing protein aggregate accumulations in disorders such as Huntington disease.
128 Rapamycin was demonstrated to protect against neurodegeneration in a fly model of Huntington and to improve neuropathology in a mouse model of Huntington disease by enhancing autophagy-mediated clearance of huntingtin accumulation.
129 Rapamycin was also shown to have a clearing effect on a variety of aggregate-prone proteins with polyglutamine or polyalanine expansions, leading to an improvement in cellular phenotype.
130 These data suggest that enhancement of autophagy can be an effective approach to reduce toxic protein accumulation and cell death also in LSDs. Trehalose, a disaccharide present in many nonmammalian species, is an mTOR-independent autophagy activator, that has an anti-apoptotic effect in cultured neurons and accelerates the clearance of mutant hungtintin and α-synuclein.
131 However, one should also take into consideration that the defect observed in most LSDs is not a dysfunction in the formation of autophagosomes, but a block in autophagic flux. Therefore, activation of autophagy in this scenario may have detrimental effects. This would be consistent with the observation that suppression of autophagy has a beneficial effects on ERT for Pompe disease.
43Recently, it was shown that cholesterol accumulation in the endolysosomal membranes in LSDs changes their organization and composition and reduces their fusion capacity.
15 It is possible that drugs aimed at reducing cholesterol in membranes, such as methyl-β-cyclodextrin (MβCD), can restore the fusion capacity of lysosomal membranes and release the block of autophagy in LSDs, as recently described for MSD and MPS IIIA.
15 This compound is toxic in vivo, but FDA approved cyclodextrins (e.g., Kleptose, Trappsol and Captisol) may be used. Indeed, chronic treatment using hydroxypropyl β-cyclodextrin in mice with NPC disease results in cholesterol and ganglioside storage reduction, normalization in the autophagy marker LC3-II and significantly increased survival, although similar studies in MPS IIIA and GM1 gangliosidosis mice do not show similar benefit.
132 Finally, a potentially attractive possibility would be to induce a global enhancement of both the lysosomal and autophagic pathways by acting on the master gene TFEB.
9,99 Further studies are needed to explore the effects of modulators of autophagy, which operate at different steps of the autophagic flux, on the LSD phenotype in cell culture and in animal models. Hopefully, these studies will lead to the development of effective treatments for several LSDs.