IGF-I stimulates Rab7-RILP interaction during neuronal autophagy

Restoration of autophagy represents a potential therapeutic target for neurodegenerative disorders, but factors that regulate autophagic flux are largely unknown. When deprived of trophic factors, cultured Purkinje neurons die by an autophagy associated cell death mechanism. The accumulation of autophagic vesicles and cell death of Purkinje neurons is inhibited by insulin-like growth factor, by a mechanism that enhances autophagic vesicle turnover. In this report, we identify Rab7 as an IGF-I regulated target during neuronal autophagy. Purkinje neurons transfected with EGFP-Rab7-WT and constitutively active EGFP-Rab7-Q67L contained few RFP-LC3 positive autophagosomes and little co-localization with GFP-Rab7 under control conditions. Upon induction of autophagy, RFP-LC3 positive autophagosomes increased and co-localized with GFP-Rab7. Conversely, expression of the dominant negative mutant EGFP-Rab7-T22N increased the accumulation of autophagosomes under control conditions, which accumulated even further during trophic factor withdrawal. There was no vesicular co-localization between Rab7-T22N and RFP-LC3 under control or trophic factor withdrawal conditions. During prolonged trophic factor withdrawal, a condition that leads to the accumulation of autophagic vesicles and cell death, Rab7 activity decreased significantly. IGF-I, added at the time of trophic factor withdrawal, prevented the deactivation of Rab7 and increased the interaction of Rab7 with its interacting protein (RILP), restoring autophagic flux. These results provide a novel mechanism by which IGF-I regulates autophagic flux during neuronal stress.