Inhibiting toxicity of ALS-linked dipeptide repeat proteins by polystyrene sulfonate (PSS)

Abstract

The GGGGCC (G4C2) expansion in the noncoding region of C9orf72 is the most common genetic cause of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and frontotemporal dementia (FTD). The repeat region is translated into five different dipeptide repeat proteins (DPRs), of which the arginine-rich DPRs (R-DPRs) poly- GR (GRn) and poly-PR (PRn) are highly neurotoxic. In this study, we characterized the protective effect against R- DPR toxicity of polystyrene sulfonate (PSS), an FDA-approved drug applied in hyperkalemia, in biochemical, cellular and iPSC-derived motor neuron (MN) models. We found that PSS, in a length-dependent manner, interacts very tightly with R-DPRs, and releases their bound RNA in R-DPR - RNA mixtures. PSS significantly influences the liquid- liquid phase separation (LLPS) of R-DPRs elicited by RNA and reduces their ensuing cell toxicity in Neuro-2a cells. PSS is cell penetrable, and it can effectively rescue the inhibitory effect R-DPRs on axonal mitochondrial transport in iPSC-derived MNs. Shorter (n < 340) variants of PSS are not toxic either to cells or to mice upon intracerebroventricular injection up to 1 mM concentration. Our results suggest that its polymeric nature endows PSS with an advantageous effect in C9-ALS providing a potential therapeutic tool against this debilitating neurodegenerative disease.