Small molecule enhancers of rapamycin-induced TOR inhibition promote autophagy, reduce toxicity in Huntington's disease models and enhance killing of mycobacteria by macrophages.

Autophagy
Authors
Keywords
Abstract

Upregulation of autophagy may have therapeutic benefit in a range of diseases that includes neurodegenerative conditions caused by intracytosolic aggregate-prone proteins, such as Huntington's disease, and certain infectious diseases, such as tuberculosis. The best-characterized drug that enhances autophagy is rapamycin, an inhibitor of the TOR (target of rapamycin) proteins, which are widely conserved from yeast to man. Unfortunately, the side effects of rapamycin, especially immunosuppression, preclude its use in treating certain diseases including tuberculosis, which accounts for approximately 2 million deaths worldwide each year, spurring interest in finding novel drugs that selectively enhance autophagy. We have recently reported a novel two-step screening process for the discovery of such compounds. We first identified compounds that enhance the growth-inhibitory effects of rapamycin in the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, which we termed small molecule enhancers of rapamycin (SMERs). Next we showed that three SMERs induced autophagy independently, or downstream of mTOR, in mammalian cells, and furthermore enhanced the clearance of a mutant huntingtin fragment in Huntington's disease cell models. These SMERs also protected against mutant huntingtin fragment toxicity in Drosophila. We have subsequently tested two of the SMERs in models of tuberculosis and both enhance the killing of mycobacteria by primary human macrophages.

Year of Publication
2007
Journal
Autophagy
Volume
3
Issue
6
Pages
620-2
Date Published
2007 Nov-Dec
ISSN
1554-8627
PubMed ID
17786022
Links
Grant list
G0600194 / Medical Research Council / United Kingdom
G0600194(77639) / Medical Research Council / United Kingdom
077273 / Wellcome Trust / United Kingdom
064354 / Wellcome Trust / United Kingdom
GM38627 / GM / NIGMS NIH HHS / United States
Wellcome Trust / United Kingdom
G108/485 / Medical Research Council / United Kingdom
N01-CO-12400 / CO / NCI NIH HHS / United States