Function of TMEM106B in Neurodegeneration

The lysosome transmembrane protein TMEM106B was originally identified as a risk factor for frontotemporal dementia (FTD) with granulin (GRN) mutations and was recently associated with many other neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer’s (AD), Parkinson’s and limbic-predominant age-related TDP-43 encephalopathy (LATE). TMEM106B is also identified as one of the main determinants of brain aging. More interestingly, a D252N mutation in the lumenal domain of TMEM106B was recently found to cause hypomyelinating leukodystrophy (HLD). However, the cellular and physiological functions of TMEM106B remain to be determined. In our preliminary studies, we found that TMEM106B deficiency causes the clustering of lysosomes in the perinuclear region and a block of lysosome transport in the axon initial segment (AIS). TMEM106B deficient mice show autophagy defects and FTD related pathology such as accumulation of phosphorylated TDP-43 during aging. We hypothesize that TMEM106B regulates myelination, autophagy, brain aging and TDP-43 pathology via modulating lysosome trafficking and movement. We plan to determine the mechanisms by which TMEM106B regulates lysosome positioning, lysosome transport along axons and autophagy flow using cell biological and biochemical approaches (Aim1). Our studies have also shown that TMEM106B is highly expressed in oligodendrocytes and TMEM106B deficiency leads to myelination defects in mice. Ablation of TMEM106B leads to trafficking defects of the myelin membrane protein PLP due to increased lysosome clustering in the peri-nuclear region and decreased lysosome exocytosis. We plan to further characterize myelination defects of TMEM106B deficient mice, especially near the AIS region, and determine the effect of the D252N mutation on TMEM106B function and myelination (Aim2). Finally, we found that mice deficient in both TMEM106B and GRN have severe lysosome abnormalities, glial activation, neurodegeneration and accumulation of TDP-43 aggregates. We plan to further dissect how TMEM106B genetically interacts with GRN to regulate TDP-43 pathology and FTD disease progression using mouse models and human patient samples (Aim3). In summary, the proposed studies will shed light on cellular and physiological functions of TMEM106B, the genetic interaction between GRN and TMEM106B and the molecular and cellular mechanisms of many brain disorders with TMEM106B association, including HLD, LATE, AD and, FTD. Our work will also yield novel insights into mechanisms involved in regulating TDP-43 aggregation in AD, FTD and LATE and how myelination defects contribute to neurodegenerative phenotypes in AD, FTD and other brain disorders.