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Size-Selective Phagocytic Clearance of Fibrillar α-Synuclein through Conformational Activation of Complement Receptor 4
J Immunol. 2020 Mar 1;204(5):1345-1361. doi: 10.4049/jimmunol.1900494.
Kristian Juul-Madsen 1 2, Per Qvist 2 3 4, Kirstine L Bendtsen 5, Annette E Langkilde 5, Bente Vestergaard 5, Kenneth A Howard 6, Martxel Dehesa-Etxebeste 7 8, Søren R Paludan 2, Gregers Rom Andersen 9, Poul Henning Jensen 2 10, Daniel E Otzen 6, Marina Romero-Ramos 2 10 11, Thomas Vorup-Jensen 12 2 6 11
Abstract:
...This study found that human complement receptor (CR) 4 selectively bound fibrillar αSN (alpha-synuclein), but not monomeric species. αSN is an abundant protein in the CNS, which potentially could overwhelm clearance of cytotoxic αSN species. The selectivity of CR4 toward binding fibrillar αSN consequently adds an important αSN receptor function for maintenance of brain homeostasis. Based on the recently solved structures of αSN fibrils and the known ligand preference of CR4, we hypothesize that the parallel monomer stacking in fibrillar αSN creates a known danger-associated molecular pattern of stretches of anionic side chains strongly bound by CR4. Conformational change in the receptor regulated tightly clearance of fibrillar αSN by human monocytes. The induced change coupled concomitantly with phagolysosome formation. Data mining of the brain transcriptome in Parkinson disease patients supported CR4 as an active αSN clearance mechanism in this disease. Our results associate an important part of the innate immune system, namely complement receptors, with the central molecular mechanisms of CNS protein aggregation in neurodegenerative disorders.