optical-photothermal-infrared-fluorescence-situ-hybridization-optir

Optical Photothermal Infrared-Fluorescence In Situ Hybridization (OPTIR-FISH)

Understanding the metabolic activities of individual cells within complex communities is critical for unraveling their role in human disease. Here, we ...

University Of California Santa Barbara

Photothermal Spectroscopy Corp.

Prion-like spread of disease-specific tau conformers is a hallmark of all tauopathies. A 19-residue probe peptide containing a P301L mutation and spanning the R2/R3 splice junction of tau, folds and stacks into seeding-competent fibrils and induces aggregation of 4R, but not 3R tau. These tau peptide fibrils propagate aggregated intracellular tau over multiple generations, have a high β-sheet content, a colocalized lipid signal, and adopt a well-defined U-shaped fold found in 4R tauopathy brain-derived fibrils. Fully atomistic replica exchange molecular dynamics (MD) simulations were used to compute the free energy landscapes of the conformational ensemble of the peptide monomers. These identified an aggregation-prohibiting β-hairpin structure and an aggregation-competent U-fold unique to 4R tauopathy fibrils. Guided by MD simulations, we identified that the N-terminal-flanking residues to PHF6, which slightly vary between 4R and 3R isoforms, modulate seeding. Strikingly, when a single amino acid switch at position 305 replaced the serine of 4R tau with a lysine from the corresponding position in the first repeat of 3R tau, the seeding induced by the 19-residue peptide was markedly reduced. Conversely, a 4R tau mimic with three repeats, prepared by replacing those amino acids in the first repeat with those amino acids uniquely present in the second repeat, recovered aggregation when exposed to the 19-residue peptide. These peptide fibrils function as partial prions to recruit naïve 4R tau-ten times the length of the peptide-and serve as a critical template for 4R tauopathy propagation. These results hint at opportunities for tau isoform-specific therapeutic interventions.

Precision Proteoform Design for 4R Tau Isoform Selective Templated Aggregation.

Understanding metabolic heterogeneity is the key to uncovering the underlying mechanisms of metabolic-related diseases. Current metabolic imaging studies suffer from limitations including low resolution and specificity, and the model systems utilized often lack human relevance. Here, we present a single-cell metabolic imaging platform to enable direct imaging of lipid metabolism with high specificity in various human-derived 2D and 3D culture systems. Through the incorporation of an azide-tagged infrared probe, selective detection of newly synthesized lipids in cells and tissue became possible, while simultaneous fluorescence imaging enabled cell-type identification in complex tissues. In proof-of-concept experiments, newly synthesized lipids were directly visualized in human-relevant model systems among different cell types, mutation status, differentiation stages, and over time. We identified upregulated lipid metabolism in progranulin-knockdown human induced pluripotent stem cells and in their differentiated microglia cells. Furthermore, we observed that neurons in brain organoids exhibited a significantly lower lipid metabolism compared to astrocytes.

Yeran Bai

Neuroscience Research Institute,
Department of Molecular,
Cellular,
and Developmental Biology,
Neuroscience Research Institute, Department of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology

University Of California Santa Barbara

Optical Photothermal Infrared-Fluorescence In Situ Hybridization (OPTIR-FISH)

Yeran Bai

.css-o250i3{font-size:18px;font-family:Open Sans,sans-serif;line-height:21.6px;}Neuroscience Research Institute,Department of Molecular,Cellular,and Developmental Biology,Neuroscience Research Institute, Department of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology

University Of California Santa Barbara

Optical Photothermal Infrared-Fluorescence In Situ Hybridization (OPTIR-FISH)

Neuroscience Research Institute,
Department of Molecular,
Cellular,
and Developmental Biology,
Neuroscience Research Institute, Department of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology