N-acetyl-D-glucosamine kinase binds dynein light chain roadblock 1 and promotes protein aggregate clearance
Md. Kamal Hossain Ripon, Hyun‐Sook Lee, Raju Dash, Ho Jin Choi, Diyah Fatimah Oktaviani, Il Soo Moon, Md. Nazmul Haque
Abstract
Abstract Emerging evidence indicates that neurodegenerative diseases (NDs) result from a failure to clear toxic protein aggregates rather than from their generation. We previously showed N -acetylglucosamine kinase (NAGK) promotes dynein functionality and suggested this might promote aggregate removal and effectively address proteinopathies. Here, we report NAGK interacts with dynein light chain roadblock type 1 (DYNLRB1) and efficiently suppresses mutant huntingtin (mHtt) (Q74) and α-synuclein (α-syn) A53T aggregation in mouse brain cells. A kinase-inactive NAGK D107A also efficiently cleared Q74 aggregates. Yeast two-hybrid selection and in silico protein–protein docking analysis showed the small domain of NAGK (NAGK-D S ) binds to the C-terminal of DYNLRB1. Furthermore, a small peptide derived from NAGK-D S interfered with Q74 clearance. We propose binding of NAGK-D S to DYNLRB1 ‘pushes up’ the tail of dynein light chain and confers momentum for inactive phi- to active open-dynein transition.