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Pharmacological convergence reveals a lipid pathway that regulates C. elegans lifespan

Nature Chemical Biology volume 15, pages 453–462 (2019)Cite this article

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Abstract

Phenotypic screening has identified small-molecule modulators of aging, but the mechanism of compound action often remains opaque due to the complexities of mapping protein targets in whole organisms. Here, we combine a library of covalent inhibitors with activity-based protein profiling to coordinately discover bioactive compounds and protein targets that extend lifespan in Caenorhabditis elegans. We identify JZL184—an inhibitor of the mammalian endocannabinoid (eCB) hydrolase monoacylglycerol lipase (MAGL or MGLL)—as a potent inducer of longevity, a result that was initially perplexing as C. elegans does not possess an MAGL ortholog. We instead identify FAAH-4 as a principal target of JZL184 and show that this enzyme, despite lacking homology with MAGL, performs the equivalent metabolic function of degrading eCB-related monoacylglycerides in C. elegans. Small-molecule phenotypic screening thus illuminates pure pharmacological connections marking convergent metabolic functions in distantly related organisms, implicating the FAAH-4/monoacylglyceride pathway as a regulator of lifespan in C. elegans.

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Fig. 1: A chemical proteomic map of serine hydrolase (SH) activities and their chemical inhibition in C. elegans.
Fig. 2: Phenotypic screening identifies SH-directed inhibitors that extend lifespan in C. elegans.
Fig. 3: Identification of FAAH-4 as a principal target of JZL184 in C. elegans.
Fig. 4: FAAH-4 is inhibited by JZL184.
Fig. 5: FAAH-4 has 2-AG and AEA hydrolytic activity in vitro.
Fig. 6: FAAH-4 regulates MAG content and lifespan of C. elegans.

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Data availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available within the paper (and its supplementary information files) or from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to M. Hansen, J. Chang, X. She, and G. Solis for discussions and technical expertise in C. elegans, D. Sabatini for the pRK5 vector, and the Caenorhabditis Genetics Center for strains. This work was supported by the NIH (DA033760, CA215249, GM074215), the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation, and Abide Therapeutics.

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Author notes

  1. William H. Parsons

    Present address: Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Oberlin College, Oberlin, OH, USA

  2. Liron Bar-Peled

    Present address: The Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, Boston, MA, USA

  3. Liron Bar-Peled

    Present address: Deparment of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. The Skaggs Institute for Chemical Biology, Department of Chemistry, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA, USA

    Alice L. Chen, Kenneth M. Lum, Daisuke Ogasawara, Armand B Cognetta III, William H. Parsons, Liron Bar-Peled & Benjamin F. Cravatt

  2. Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA

    Pablo Lara-Gonzalez & Arshad Desai

  3. Department of Molecular Medicine, The Scripps Research Institute, San Diego, CA, USA

    Alan To & Michael Petrascheck

  4. Dorris Neuroscience Center, The Scripps Research Institute, San Diego, CA, USA

    Alan To & Michael Petrascheck

  5. Vividion Therapeutics, San Diego, CA, USA

    Gabriel M. Simon

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Contributions

A.L.C., L.B.-P., and B.F.C. conceived the project and wrote the paper. A.L.C., M.P., L.B.-P., and B.F.C. designed the experiments. A.L.C., M.P., and L.B.-P. developed the methods. A.L.C. performed the experiments and analyzed data. K.M.L. and G.M.S. generated the putative SH list and nonredundant C. elegans database. A.L.C. and K.M.L. analyzed chemical proteomic data. A.L.C., K.M.L., D.O., A.B.C., and W.H.P. designed and synthesized compounds. A.L.C., P.L.-G. and A.T. generated CRISPR–Cas9 mediated strains and A.D. and M.P. provided the facilities. P. L.-G. and A.L.C. backcrossed and sequenced CRISPR–Cas9-mediated strains. M.P. and A.T. assisted with lifespan experiments and RNA-seq analysis. A.L.C. and G.M.S. generated dendrograms. K.M.L., P.L.-G., D.O., W.H.P., A.D., and M.P. edited the paper.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Michael Petrascheck, Liron Bar-Peled or Benjamin F. Cravatt.

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Competing interests

B.F.C. is a founder and advisor to Abide Therapeutics, a biotechnology company interested in developing serine hydrolase inhibitors and therapeutics.

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Supplementary information

Supplementary Text and Figures

Supplementary Tables 1–6, Supplementary Figures 1–12

Reporting Summary

Supplementary Note 1

Synthetic methods

Supplementary Dataset 1

List of predicted C. elegans SHs, FP-enriched SHs, and gene expression data, related to Fig. 1.

Supplementary Dataset 2

Lifespan data.

Supplementary Dataset 3

Proteomic data, related to Figs. 3 and 4 and Supplementary Figure 7.

Supplementary Dataset 4

Proteomic data, related to Figs. 3 and 4 and Supplementary Table 7.

Supplementary Dataset 5

Proteomic data, related to Fig. 3.

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Chen, A.L., Lum, K.M., Lara-Gonzalez, P. et al. Pharmacological convergence reveals a lipid pathway that regulates C. elegans lifespan. Nat Chem Biol 15, 453–462 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41589-019-0243-4

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