SIRT6 is a longevity gene. SIRT6 KO mice exhibit premature aging and genomic instability, while SIRT6 overexpressing mice show lifespan extension. SIRT6 regulates glucose homeostasis, controls inflammation, and promotes DNA repair. Several lines of evidence support the role of SIRT6 in preventing Alzheimer?s disease (AD): (1) brain-specific SIRT6 KO mice develop neurodegeneration; (2) SIRT6 levels are lower in AD patients; (3) SIRT6 is a central regulator of DNA repair and links between compromised DNA repair and AD have been proposed; (4) AD is associated with neuroinflammation, while our recent data shows that SIRT6 suppresses inflammation; (5) Furthermore, we recently demonstrated that SIRT6 allele found in human centenarians has enhanced enzymatic activity and that SIRT6 activity positively correlates with species? lifespan. Based on these finding, we hypothesize that activating SIRT6 confers protection from AD by improving DNA repair and suppressing inflammation. The goal of the parent R01 grant is to examine the role of SIRT6 in longevity. Here we propose to expand our work into AD field by testing whether SIRT6 activators confer protection from AD using mouse models. SIRT6 has two enzymatic activities, deacetylation and mono-ADP-ribosylation. Several chemical activators of SIRT6 deacetylation activity have been reported. We have tested the effect of these activators on SIRT6 mono-ADP-ribosylation activity and identified fucoidan as the most potent activator of SIRT6 mono-ADP ribosylation activity, which is required for SIRT6 function in reducing inflammation and stimulating DNA repair. Our preliminary experiments suggest that fucoidan enhances DNA repair in cultured cells. Fucoidan is a short polysaccharide found in brown seaweed. Intriguingly, seaweed is widely consumed in Japan, a country with the highest life expectancy. Here we propose to test whether fucoidan and other activators of SIRT6 mono-ADP-ribosylation activity: (1) Protect neuronal and microglial cells from DNA damage and reduce inflammation; (2) Alleviate pathology in AD mouse models. We will treat MAPT and 5xFAD AD mouse models with SIRT6 activators. We selected the two AD strains to evaluate the effect of SIRT6 activators on intracellular pathology, the neurofibrillary tangles, seen in MAPT model as well as the extracellular pathology, the amyloid plaques, seen in 5xFAD model. These experiments will serve as a proof of principle that activating SIRT6 may be used as therapeutic strategy against AD. Furthermore, these studies may directly lead to novel AD therapies using SIRT6 chemical activators.

Public Health Relevance

Extra copies of SIRT6 gene extend lifespan in mice and other model organisms. Furthermore, recent studies suggest that SIRT6 protein protects from Alzheimer?s disease. Here we propose to test whether chemical activators of SIRT6 confer protection in Alzheimer?s disease mouse models.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute on Aging (NIA)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
3R01AG027237-13S1
Application #
10123529
Study Section
Cellular Mechanisms in Aging and Development Study Section (CMAD)
Program Officer
Guo, Max
Project Start
2006-07-01
Project End
2023-05-31
Budget Start
2020-08-01
Budget End
2021-05-31
Support Year
13
Fiscal Year
2020
Total Cost
Indirect Cost
Name
University of Rochester
Department
Biology
Type
Schools of Arts and Sciences
DUNS #
041294109
City
Rochester
State
NY
Country
United States
Zip Code
14627
Seluanov, Andrei; Gladyshev, Vadim N; Vijg, Jan et al. (2018) Mechanisms of cancer resistance in long-lived mammals. Nat Rev Cancer 18:433-441
Tan, Li; Ke, Zhonghe; Tombline, Gregory et al. (2017) Naked Mole Rat Cells Have a Stable Epigenome that Resists iPSC Reprogramming. Stem Cell Reports 9:1721-1734
Tian, Xiao; Seluanov, Andrei; Gorbunova, Vera (2017) Molecular Mechanisms Determining Lifespan in Short- and Long-Lived Species. Trends Endocrinol Metab 28:722-734
Hewitt, Graeme; Carroll, Bernadette; Sarallah, Rezazadeh et al. (2016) SQSTM1/p62 mediates crosstalk between autophagy and the UPS in DNA repair. Autophagy 12:1917-1930
Koschmann, Carl; Calinescu, Anda-Alexandra; Nunez, Felipe J et al. (2016) ATRX loss promotes tumor growth and impairs nonhomologous end joining DNA repair in glioma. Sci Transl Med 8:328ra28
Gorbunova, Vera; Rezazadeh, Sarallah; Seluanov, Andrei (2016) Dangerous Entrapment for NRF2. Cell 165:1312-1313
Patrick, Alison; Seluanov, Michael; Hwang, Chaewon et al. (2016) Sensitivity of primary fibroblasts in culture to atmospheric oxygen does not correlate with species lifespan. Aging (Albany NY) 8:841-7
Ma, Siming; Upneja, Akhil; Galecki, Andrzej et al. (2016) Cell culture-based profiling across mammals reveals DNA repair and metabolism as determinants of species longevity. Elife 5:
Van Meter, Michael; Simon, Matthew; Tombline, Gregory et al. (2016) JNK Phosphorylates SIRT6 to Stimulate DNA Double-Strand Break Repair in Response to Oxidative Stress by Recruiting PARP1 to DNA Breaks. Cell Rep 16:2641-2650
Gorbunova, Vera; Seluanov, Andrei (2016) DNA double strand break repair, aging and the chromatin connection. Mutat Res 788:2-6

Showing the most recent 10 out of 53 publications