Micro-rubber from the Sewanee soccer turf causes proteotoxicity and disrupts the heat shock response
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Authors
Prince, Elaina
Smith, Adeline
White, Hazel
Kikis, Elise
Issue Date
2025-04-20
Type
Other
Language
en_US
Keywords
Scholarship Sewanee 2025 , University of the South, proteostasis, neurodegenerative disease, protein misfolding, microplastic, C. elegans, toxicity, transcriptional stress, biology, Alzheimer's disease, Huntington's disease
Alternative Title
Abstract
Proteostasis, the ability to maintain and regulate the proteome, is fundamental for cellular function, but progressively deteriorates with age. Moreover, genetic predisposition and environmental factors accelerate protein misfolding and may exacerbate conformational diseases such as Alzheimer’s (AD) and Huntington’s disease (HD). Previously, our laboratory found that exposure to nano-size particulate air pollution contributes to the misfolding of neurodegenerative disease-associated proteins. Here, we use C. elegans as a model system to determine if exposure to micro-rubber particles (obtained from the Sewanee soccer turf) similarly contributes to protein misfolding. To assay for an impaired ability to maintain proteostasis, we used a metastable HD-associated protein (polyQ) fused to YFP as a sensor. As proteostasis collapses, this sensor misfolds and aggregates into distinct fluorescent foci. We found that exposure to micro-rubber particles accelerated the formation of misfolded protein aggregates within the body wall muscle cells. Furthermore, we found that this led to proteotoxicity, as evidenced by detrimental effects on cellular function. A heat shock response (HSR) is a cytoprotective cellular defense mechanism that activates under conditions of stress and repairs damaged proteins. We ascertained the effects of micro-rubber particle exposure on this important transcriptional response, utilizing a reporter strain expressing GFP under the control of a heat-inducible promoter. While micro-rubber did not trigger an HSR on its own, we found that exposure attenuated the HSR following an acute heat shock. Ultimately, our data suggest that micro-rubber particles contribute to a decline in proteostasis, which may be relevant to neurodegenerative disease progression.
Description
Citation
Publisher
University of the South