A PARK9 iPSC-Derived Dopaminergic Neuron Model Enables Drug Screening Targeting Autophagy-Lysosome Pathway...

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disease characterized by dopaminergic neuronal degeneration in the substantia nigra, in which lysosomal dysfunction and impaired autophagy-lysosome pathway activity are increasingly recognized as important pathogenic mechanisms. However, disease-modifying therapies targeting this pathway remain unavailable. Here, we generated induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) from a PARK9 patient carrying an ATP13A2 mutation and established mutation-corrected isogenic control iPSCs. PARK9 iPSC-derived neurons recapitulated lysosomal dysfunction-associated cellular phenotypes, including impaired lysosomal acidification, reduced mature cathepsin D levels, CD63-positive vesicle accumulation, LC3B-positive autophagosome accumulation, cytoplasmic pSer129 α-synuclein accumulation, and increased cleaved caspase-3 signals. These phenotypes were ameliorated in mutation-corrected neurons, supporting the contribution of ATP13A2 dysfunction to these abnormalities. We then performed high-content imaging-based compound screening targeting LC3B-positive autophagosome accumulation in PARK9 neurons. A three-step workflow identified 19 candidate compounds that reduced autophagosome accumulation consistent with partial improvement of lysosome-dependent downstream autophagosome processing rather than simple suppression of autophagosome formation. Among these, paroxetine, Ro 25-6981, amisulpride, and PK11195 showed additional, compound-dependent effects on PARK9-associated phenotypes, including lysosomal acidification, CD63-positive vesicle accumulation, cytoplasmic pSer129 α-synuclein signals, and cleaved caspase-3 signals. These findings establish PARK9 iPSC-derived neurons as a useful model of lysosomal dysfunction-associated PD pathology and provide a practical screening platform for identifying candidate compounds that modulate autophagy-lysosome pathway-related cellular phenotypes.