Current Biology
Volume 27, Issue 5, 6 March 2017, Pages 638-650
Journal home page for Current Biology

Article
RTN3 Is a Novel Cold-Induced Protein and Mediates Neuroprotective Effects of RBM3

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2017.01.047Get rights and content
Under a Creative Commons license
open access

Highlights

  • Cooling-induced reprogramming of the translatome increases synthesis of RTN3

  • The neuroprotective protein RBM3 binds RTN3 mRNA and drives its expression

  • RTN3 overexpression prevents synaptic loss in mice with prion disease

  • RTN3 expression is a mediator of RBM3-induced neuroprotection

Summary

Cooling and hypothermia are profoundly neuroprotective, mediated, at least in part, by the cold shock protein, RBM3. However, the neuroprotective effector proteins induced by RBM3 and the mechanisms by which mRNAs encoding cold shock proteins escape cooling-induced translational repression are unknown. Here, we show that cooling induces reprogramming of the translatome, including the upregulation of a new cold shock protein, RTN3, a reticulon protein implicated in synapse formation. We report that this has two mechanistic components. Thus, RTN3 both evades cooling-induced translational elongation repression and is also bound by RBM3, which drives the increased expression of RTN3. In mice, knockdown of RTN3 expression eliminated cooling-induced neuroprotection. However, lentivirally mediated RTN3 overexpression prevented synaptic loss and cognitive deficits in a mouse model of neurodegeneration, downstream and independently of RBM3. We conclude that RTN3 expression is a mediator of RBM3-induced neuroprotection, controlled by novel mechanisms of escape from translational inhibition on cooling.

Keywords

cold shock
protein synthesis
mRNA translation
RTN3
neuroprotection
RBM3

Cited by (0)

4

Co-first author

5

Lead Contact