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During autophagy, cytosolic cargo is sequestered into double-membrane vesicles called autophagosomes. The origin and identity of the membranes that form the autophagosome remain to be fully characterized. Here, we investigated the role of cholesterol in starvation- induced autophagy and identify a role for the ER-localized cholesterol transport protein GRAMD1C in the regulation of autophagy and mitochondrial function. We demonstrate that cholesterol depletion leads to a rapid induction of autophagy, possibly caused by a corresponding increased abundance of curved autophagy membranes. We further show that GRAMD1C is a negative regulator of starvation-induced autophagy. Similar to its yeast orthologue, GRAMD1C is recruited to mitochondria through its GRAM domain. Additionally, we find that GRAMD1C depletion leads to increased mitochondrial cholesterol accumulation and mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation. Finally, we demonstrate that expression of GRAM family genes is linked to clear cell renal carcinoma survival, highlighting the pathophysiological relevance of cholesterol transport proteins.

The ATP-dependent chromatin remodelling complexes maintain the chromatin dynamics, enabling the gene expression or its silencing. The SWI/SNF subfamily remodelers (SWI/SNF and RSC) generally promote gene expression by displacing or evicting nucleosomes at the promoter regions. Their action creates a nucleosome-depleted region where transcription machinery accesses the DNA. Their involvement has been shown critical for the induction of stress-responsive transcription programs. Although the role of SWI/SNF and RSC complexes in transcription regulation of heat shock responsive genes is well studied, their involvement at other pathway genes such as UPR, HSP and PQC is less known. In this study, we showed that the SWI/SNF occupies promoters of UPR, HSP and PQC genes in response to the unfolded protein stress, and its recruitment at UPR promoters is dependent on the Hac1 transcription factor and other epigenetic factors like Ada2 and Ume6. Disruption of SWI/SNF’s activity does not affect the remodelling of these promoters or gene expression. However, inactivation of both RSC and SWI/SNF complexes diminishes expression of most of the UPR, HSP and PQC genes tested. Altogether these results suggest that these two remodelers work together or one compensates the loss of the other to ensure optimal induction of the stress-responsive genes.

Dravet syndrome is caused by dominant loss-of-function mutations in SCN1A which cause reduced activity of Nav1.1 leading to lack of neuronal inhibition. On the other hand, gain-of-function mutations in SCN8A can lead to a severe epileptic encephalopathy subtype by over activating NaV1.6 channels. These observations suggest that Nav1.1 and Nav1.6 represent two opposing sides of the neuronal balance between inhibition and activation. Here, we hypothesize that Dravet syndrome may be treated by either enhancing Nav1.1 or reducing Nav1.6 activity. To test this hypothesis we generated and characterized a novel DS zebrafish model and tested new compounds that selectively activate or inhibit the human NaV1.1 or NaV1.6 channel respectively. We used CRISPR/Cas9 to generate two separate Scn1Lab knockout lines as an alternative to previous knock-down models. Using an optimized locomotor assay, spontaneous burst movements were detected that were unique to Scn1Lab knockouts and disappear when introducing human SCN1A mRNA. Besides the behavioral phenotype, Scn1Lab knockouts show sudden, electrical discharges in the brain that indicate epileptic seizures in zebrafish. Scn1Lab knockouts showed increased sensitivity to the convulsant pentylenetetrazole and a reduction in whole organism GABA levels. Drug screenings further validated a Dravet syndrome phenotype. We tested the NaV1.1 activator AA43279 and our newly synthesized NaV1.6 inhibitors MV1369 and MV1312 in the Scn1Lab knockouts. Both type of compounds significantly reduced the number of burst movements. Our results show that selective inhibition of NaV1.6 could be just as efficient as selective activation of NaV1.1 and these approaches could prove to be novel potential treatment strategies for Dravet syndrome and other (genetic) epilepsies. Compounds tested in zebrafish however, should always be further validated in other model systems, preferably human derived.

Cytochrome-P450-2C9 (CYP2C9) metabolizes wide range of drugs and highly express in human liver. Various mutations of CYP2C9 (R144C, I359L etc.), associated with drug-response, are highly diverse. We aimed to investigate the genetic diversity of CYP2C9 in Indian-subcontinent, using 1278 subjects from 36 populations. High frequency of CYP2C9*3 (0-0.179) was observed, comparative to other populations, including Europeans. Subjects having CYP2C9*3/*3 requires lower dose of warfarin, comparative to CYP2C9*1/*3 or CYP2C9*1/*1. Since, Indians are practicing marriage among their caste system, we predicted and observed high frequency (0-0.05) of CYP2C9*3/*3. Out of 21 populations, living outside of Indian subcontinent, only Toscani and Southern Han-Chinese have 0.009 and 0.01 CYP2C9*3/*3, respectively, lower than Indians,. We found a non-synonymous mutation (L362V), observed only in Indian-subcontinent, and have 0-0.056 allelic, 0-0.037 L/V and 00.037 V/V genotype frequency. We observed unfavorable interatomic interactions between hydroxylation sites of warfarin and reactive oxyferryl heme in mutant, comparative to wild-type CYP2C9, in molecular dynamic simulations; and predict lower kinetic activity.