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Human Molecular Genetics Advance Access originally published online on January 22, 2008
Human Molecular Genetics 2008 17(10):1373-1385; doi:10.1093/hmg/ddn025
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© The Author 2008. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Heterodimer formation of wild-type and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis-causing mutant Cu/Zn-superoxide dismutase induces toxicity independent of protein aggregation

Heidrun Witan1, Andreas Kern1, Ingrid Koziollek-Drechsler1, Rebecca Wade2, Christian Behl1,* and Albrecht M. Clement1,*

1 Department of Pathobiochemistry, Medical School, Johannes Gutenberg-University of Mainz, Duesbergweg 6, 55099 Mainz, Germany 2 EML Research, Schloss-Wolfsbrunnenweg 33, 69118 Heidelberg, Germany

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. Fax: +49 61313925792; Email: cbehl{at}uni-mainz.de (C.B.); clement{at}uni-mainz.de (A.M.C.)

Received January 17, 2008; Accepted January 20, 2008

Recent studies provide evidence that wild-type Cu/Zn-superoxide dismutase (SOD1(hWT)) might be an important factor in mutant SOD1-mediated amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). In order to investigate its functional role in the pathogenesis of ALS, we designed fusion proteins of two SOD1 monomers linked by a polypeptide. We demonstrated that wild-type-like mutants, but not SOD1(G85R) homodimers, as well as mutant heterodimers including SOD1(G85R)-SOD1(hWT) display dismutase activity. Mutant homodimers showed an increased aggregation compared with the corresponding heterodimers in cell cultures and transgenic Caenorhabditis elegans, although SOD1(G85R) heterodimers are more toxic in functional assays. Our data show that (i) toxicity of mutant SOD1 is not correlated to its aggregation potential; (ii) dismutase-inactive mutants form dismutase-active heterodimers with SOD1(hWT); (iii) SOD1(hWT) can be converted to contribute to disease by forming active heterodimers. Therefore, we conclude that toxicity of mutant SOD1 is at least partially mediated through heterodimer formation with SOD1(hWT) in vivo and does not correlate with the aggregation potential of individual mutants.


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