HAP40 modulates mutant Huntingtin aggregation and toxicity in Huntington's disease mice

Huntington's disease (HD) is a monogenic neurodegenerative disease, caused by the CAG trinucleotide repeat expansion in exon 1 of the Huntingtin (HTT) gene. The HTT gene encodes a large protein known to interact with many proteins. Huntingtin-associated protein 40 (HAP40) is one that shows high binding affinity with HTT and functions to maintain HTT conformation in vitro. However, the potential role of HAP40 in HD pathogenesis remains unknown. In this study, we found that the expression level of HAP40 is in parallel with HTT but inversely correlates with mutant HTT aggregates in mouse brains. Depletion of endogenous HAP40 in the striatum of HD140Q knock-in (KI) mice leads to enhanced mutant HTT aggregation and neuronal loss. Consistently, overexpression of HAP40 in the striatum of HD140Q KI mice reduced mutant HTT aggregation and ameliorated the behavioral deficits. Mechanistically, HAP40 preferentially binds to mutant HTT and promotes Lysine 48-linked ubiquitination of mutant HTT. Our results revealed that HAP40 is an important regulator of HTT protein homeostasis in vivo and hinted at HAP40 as a therapeutic target in HD treatment.