Weiwei Fan

Mitochondrial Energetics and Therapeutics

Mitochondrial dysfunction has been linked to a wide range of degenerative and metabolic diseases, cancer, and aging. All these clinical manifestations arise from the central role of bioenergetics in cell biology. Although genetic therapies are maturing as the rules of bioenergetic genetics are clarified, metabolic therapies have been ineffectual. This failure results from our limited appreciation of the role of bioenergetics as the interface between the environment and the cell. A systems approach, which, ironically, was first successfully applied over 80 years ago with the introduction of the ketogenic diet, is required. Analysis of the many ways that a shift from carbohydrate glycolytic metabolism to fatty acid and ketone oxidative metabolism may modulate metabolism, signal transduction pathways, and the epigenome gives us an appreciation of the ketogenic diet and the potential for bioenergetic therapeutics.

Energetics, epigenetics, mitochondrial genetics

The epigenome has been hypothesized to provide the interface between the environment and the nuclear DNA (nDNA) genes. Key factors in the environment are the availability of calories and demands on the organisms energetic capacity. Energy is funneled through glycolysis and mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS), the cellular bioenergetic systems. Since there are thousands of bioenergetic genes dispersed across the chromosomes and mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), both cis and trans regulation of the nDNA genes is required. The bioenergetic systems convert environmental calories into ATP, acetyl-Coenzyme A (acetyl-CoA), s-adenosyl-methionine (SAM), and reduced NAD(+). When calories are abundant, ATP and acetyl-CoA phosphorylate and acetylate chromatin, opening the nDNA for transcription and replication. When calories are limiting, chromatin phosphorylation and acetylation are lost and gene expression is suppressed. DNA methylation via SAM can also be modulated by mitochondrial function. Phosphorylation and acetylation are also pivotal to regulating cellular signal transduction pathways. Therefore, bioenergetics provides the interface between the environment and the epigenome. Consistent with this conclusion, the clinical phenotypes of bioenergetic diseases are strikingly similar to those observed in epigenetic diseases (Angelman, Rett, Fragile X Syndromes, the laminopathies, cancer, etc.), and an increasing number of epigenetic diseases are being associated with mitochondrial dysfunction. This bioenergetic-epigenomic hypothesis has broad implications for the etiology, pathophysiology, and treatment of a wide range of common diseases.

A Mouse Model of Mitochondrial Disease Reveals Germline Selection Against Severe mtDNA Mutations

The majority of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) mutations that cause human disease are mild to moderately deleterious, yet many random mtDNA mutations would be expected to be severe. To determine the fate of the more severe mtDNA mutations, we introduced mtDNAs containing two mutations that affect oxidative phosphorylation into the female mouse germ line. The severe ND6 mutation was selectively eliminated during oogenesis within four generations, whereas the milder COI mutation was retained throughout multiple generations even though the offspring consistently developed mitochondrial myopathy and cardiomyopathy. Thus, severe mtDNA mutations appear to be selectively eliminated from the female germ line, thereby minimizing their impact on population fitness.

The pathophysiology of mitochondrial disease as modeled in the mouse

It is now clear that mitochondrial defects are associated with a plethora of clinical phenotypes in man and mouse. This is the result of the mitochondrias central role in energy production, reactive oxygen species (ROS) biology, and apoptosis, and because the mitochondrial genome consists of roughly 1500 genes distributed across the maternal mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) and the Mendelian nuclear DNA (nDNA). While numerous pathogenic mutations in both mtDNA and nDNA mitochondrial genes have been identified in the past 21 years, the causal role of mitochondrial dysfunction in the common metabolic and degenerative diseases, cancer, and aging is still debated. However, the development of mice harboring mitochondrial gene mutations is permitting demonstration of the direct cause-and-effect relationship between mitochondrial dysfunction and disease. Mutations in nDNA-encoded mitochondrial genes involved in energy metabolism, antioxidant defenses, apoptosis via the mitochondrial permeability transition pore (mtPTP), mitochondrial fusion, and mtDNA biogenesis have already demonstrated the phenotypic importance of mitochondrial defects. These studies are being expanded by the recent development of procedures for introducing mtDNA mutations into the mouse. These studies are providing direct proof that mtDNA mutations are sufficient by themselves to generate major clinical phenotypes. As more different mtDNA types and mtDNA gene mutations are introduced into various mouse nDNA backgrounds, the potential functional role of mtDNA variation in permitting humans and mammals to adapt to different environments and in determining their predisposition to a wide array of diseases should be definitively demonstrated.

Mouse mtDNA mutant model of Leber hereditary optic neuropathy

An animal model of Leber hereditary optic neuropathy (LHON) was produced by introducing the human optic atrophy mtDNA ND6 P25L mutation into the mouse. Mice with this mutation exhibited reduction in retinal function by elecroretinogram (ERG), age-related decline in central smaller caliber optic nerve fibers with sparing of larger peripheral fibers, neuronal accumulation of abnormal mitochondria, axonal swelling, and demyelination. Mitochondrial analysis revealed partial complex I and respiration defects and increased reactive oxygen species (ROS) production, whereas synaptosome analysis revealed decreased complex I activity and increased ROS but no diminution of ATP production. Thus, LHON pathophysiology may result from oxidative stress.

Mitochondrial dysfunction in CA1 hippocampal neurons of the UBE3A deficient mouse model for Angelman syndrome

Angelman syndrome (AS) is a severe neurological disorder caused by a deficiency of ubiquitin protein ligase E3A (UBE3A), but the pathophysiology of the disease remains unknown. We now report that in the brains of AS mice in which the maternal UBE3A allele is mutated (m-) and the paternal allele is potentially inactivated by imprinting (p+) (UBE3A m-\p+), the mitochondria are abnormal and exhibit a partial oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS) defect. Electron microscopy of the hippocampal region of the UBE3A m-\p+ mice (n=6) reveals small, dense mitochondria with altered cristae, relative to wild-type littermates (n=6) and reduced synaptic vesicle density. The specific activity of OXPHOS complex III is reduced in whole brain mitochondria in UBE3A m-\p+ (n=5) mice versus wild-type littermates (n=5). Therefore, mitochondrial dysfunction may contribute to the pathophysiology of Angelman syndrome.

mtDNA lineage analysis of mouse L-cell lines reveals the accumulation of multiple mtDNA mutants and intermolecular recombination.

The role of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) mutations and mtDNA recombination in cancer cell proliferation and developmental biology remains controversial. While analyzing the mtDNAs of several mouse L cell lines, we discovered that every cell line harbored multiple mtDNA mutants. These included four missense mutations, two frameshift mutations, and one tRNA homopolymer expansion. The LA9 cell lines lacked wild-type mtDNAs but harbored a heteroplasmic mixture of mtDNAs, each with a different combination of these variants. We isolated each of the mtDNAs in a separate cybrid cell line. This permitted determination of the linkage phase of each mtDNA and its physiological characteristics. All of the polypeptide mutations inhibited their oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS) complexes. However, they also increased mitochondrial reactive oxygen species (ROS) production, and the level of ROS production was proportional to the cellular proliferation rate. By comparing the mtDNA haplotypes of the different cell lines, we were able to reconstruct the mtDNA mutational history of the L-L929 cell line. This revealed that every heteroplasmic L-cell line harbored a mtDNA that had been generated by intracellular mtDNA homologous recombination. Therefore, deleterious mtDNA mutations that increase ROS production can provide a proliferative advantage to cancer or stem cells, and optimal combinations of mutant loci can be generated through recombination.

Impaired translocation and activation of mitochondrial Akt1 mitigated mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation Complex V activity in diabetic myocardium.

Insulin can translocate Akt to mitochondria in cardiac muscle. The goals of this study were to define sub-mitochondrial localization of the translocated Akt, to dissect the effects of insulin on Akt isoform translocation, and to determine the direct effect of mitochondrial Akt activation on Complex V activity in normal and diabetic myocardium. The translocated Akt sequentially localized to the mitochondrial intermembrane space, inner membrane, and matrix. To confirm Akt translocation, in vitro import assay showed rapid entry of Akt into mitochondria. Akt isoforms were differentially regulated by insulin stimulation, only Akt1 translocated into mitochondria. In the insulin-resistant Type 2 diabetes model, Akt1 translocation was blunted. Mitochondrial activation of Akt1 increased Complex V activity by 24% in normal myocardium in vivo and restored Complex V activity in diabetic myocardium. Basal mitochondrial Complex V activity was lower by 22% in the Akt1(-/-) myocardium. Insulin-stimulated Complex V activity was not impaired in the Akt1(-/-) myocardium, due to compensatory translocation of Akt2 to mitochondria. Akt1 is the primary isoform that relayed insulin signaling to mitochondria and modulated mitochondrial Complex V activity. Activation of mitochondrial Akt1 enhanced ATP production and increased phosphocreatine in cardiac muscle cells. Dysregulation of this signal pathway might impair mitochondrial bioenergetics in diabetic myocardium.

Heteroplasmic mutations of the mitochondrial genome cause paradoxical effects on mitochondrial functions

Mitochondrial genome (mtDNA) mutation causes highly variable clinical features, and its pathogenesis is not fully understood. In this study, we analyzed the heteroplasmic mtDNA mutation C4936T (p.T156I) in ND2 of complex I and the homoplasmic mtDNA mutation A9181G (p.S219G) in ATPase 6 of complex V. Using cybrid technology, we found that in a high‐glucose medium in which cultured cells mainly depend on anaerobic glycolysis for energy, the C4936T mutation inhibited cell growth by 50%. Oxygen consumption and reactive oxygen species production were also reduced by 60 and 75%, respectively. Because the subject also had conjunctiva carcinoma, we further tested whether the C4936T mutation was associated with tumor formation. In an anchorage‐dependant growth test, we found that only cells with a high level of C4936T mutation formed colonies. In contrast, when the cells grew in a galactose medium in which cells were forced to generate ATP through oxidative phosphorylation, the C4936T mutation protected cells from apoptosis probably caused by the A9181G mutation. Our results suggest that the phenotype caused by mtDNA mutations may depend on the availability of the nutrients. This gene‐environment interaction may contribute to the complexity of pathogenesis and clinical phenotypes caused by mtDNA mutation.—Zhang, C., Huang, V. H., Simon, M., Sharma, L. K., Fan, W., Haas, R., Wallace, D. C., Bai, Y., Huang, T. Heteroplasmic mutations of the mitochondrial genome cause paradoxical effects on mitochondrial functions. FASEB J. 26, 4914–4924 (2012). www.fasebj.org