Mitochondria-affecting small molecules ameliorate proteostasis defects associated with neurodegenerative diseases

Macroautophagic recycling of dysfunctional mitochondria, known as mitophagy, is essential for mitochondrial homeostasis and cell viability. Accumulation of defective mitochondria and impaired mitophagy have been widely implicated in many neurodegenerative diseases, and loss-of-function mutations of PINK1 and Parkin, two key regulators of mitophagy, are amongst the most common causes of heritable parkinsonism. This has led to the hypothesis that pharmacological stimulation of mitophagy may be a feasible approach to combat neurodegeneration. Toward this end, we screened ~ 45,000 small molecules using a high-throughput, whole-organism, phenotypic screen that monitored accumulation of PINK-1 protein, a key event in mitophagic activation, in a Caenorhabditis elegans strain carrying a Ppink-1 ::PINK-1::GFP reporter. We obtained eight hits that increased mitochondrial fragmentation and autophagosome formation. Several of the compounds also reduced ATP production, oxygen consumption, mitochondrial mass, and/or mitochondrial membrane potential. Importantly, we found that treatment with two compounds, which we named PS83 and PS106 (more commonly known as sertraline) reduced neurodegenerative disease phenotypes, including delaying paralysis in a C. elegans β-amyloid aggregation model in a PINK-1-dependent manner. This report presents a promising step toward the identification of compounds that will stimulate mitochondrial turnover.