Genetic deletion of the lysosomal Ca2+ channel MCOLN1 in mice results in muscular dystrophy, implicating this source of calcium in muscle membrane repair. The integrity of the plasma membrane is maintained through an active repair process, especially in skeletal and cardiac muscle cells, in which contraction-induced mechanical damage frequently occurs in vivo1,2. Muscular dystrophies (MDs) are a group of muscle diseases characterized by skeletal muscle wasting and weakness3,4. An important cause of these group of diseases is defective repair of sarcolemmal injuries, which normally requires Ca2+ sensor proteins5,6,7,8 and Ca2+-dependent delivery of intracellular vesicles to the sites of injury8,9. MCOLN1 (also known as TRPML1, ML1) is an endosomal and lysosomal Ca2+ channel whose human mutations cause mucolipidosis IV (ML4), a neurodegenerative disease with motor disabilities10,11. Here we report that ML1-null mice develop a primary, early-onset MD independent of neural degeneration. Although the dystrophin-glycoprotein complex and the known membrane repair proteins are expressed normally, membrane resealing was defective in ML1-null muscle fibers and also upon acute and pharmacological inhibition of ML1 channel activity or vesicular Ca2+ release. Injury facilitated the trafficking and exocytosis of vesicles by upmodulating ML1 channel activity. In the dystrophic mdx mouse model, overexpression of ML1 decreased muscle pathology. Collectively, our data have identified an intracellular Ca2+ channel that regulates membrane repair in skeletal muscle via Ca2+-dependent vesicle exocytosis.

Rapamycin (Rap) and its derivatives, called rapalogs, are being explored in clinical trials targeting cancer and neurodegeneration. The underlying mechanisms of Rap actions, however, are not well understood. Mechanistic target of rapamycin (mTOR), a lysosome-localized protein kinase that acts as a critical regulator of cellular growth, is believed to mediate most Rap actions. Here, we identified mucolipin 1 (transient receptor potential channel mucolipin 1 [TRPML1], also known as MCOLN1), the principle Ca²⁺ release channel in the lysosome, as another direct target of Rap. Patch-clamping of isolated lysosomal membranes showed that micromolar concentrations of Rap and some rapalogs activated lysosomal TRPML1 directly and specifically. Pharmacological inhibition or genetic inactivation of mTOR failed to mimic the Rap effect. In vitro binding assays revealed that Rap bound directly to purified TRPML1 proteins with a micromolar affinity. In both healthy and disease human fibroblasts, Rap and rapalogs induced autophagic flux via nuclear translocation of transcription factor EB (TFEB). However, such effects were abolished in TRPML1-deficient cells or by TRPML1 inhibitors. Hence, Rap and rapalogs promote autophagy via a TRPML1-dependent mechanism. Given the demonstrated roles of TRPML1 and TFEB in cellular clearance, we propose that lysosomal TRPML1 may contribute a significant portion to the in vivo neuroprotective and anti-aging effects of Rap via an augmentation of autophagy and lysosomal biogenesis.

The resting membrane potential (Δψ) of the cell is negative on the cytosolic side and determined primarily by the plasma membrane’s selective permeability to K+. We show that lysosomal Δψ is set by lysosomal membrane permeabilities to Na+ and H+, but not K+, and is positive on the cytosolic side. An increase in juxta-lysosomal Ca2+ rapidly reversed lysosomal Δψ by activating a large voltage-dependent and K+-selective conductance (LysoKVCa). LysoKVCa is encoded molecularly by SLO1 proteins known for forming plasma membrane BK channels. Opening of single LysoKVCa channels is sufficient to cause the rapid, striking changes in lysosomal Δψ. Lysosomal Ca2+ stores may be refilled from endoplasmic reticulum (ER) Ca2+ via ER–lysosome membrane contact sites. We propose that LysoKVCa serves as the perilysosomal Ca2+ effector to prime lysosomes for the refilling process. Consistently, genetic ablation or pharmacological inhibition of LysoKVCa, or abolition of its Ca2+ sensitivity, blocks refilling and maintenance of lysosomal Ca2+ stores, resulting in lysosomal cholesterol accumulation and a lysosome storage phenotype.

Significance: Voltage-gated K ⁺ channels are a large family of K ⁺ -selective ion channel protein complexes that open on membrane depolarization. These K ⁺ channels are expressed in diverse tissues and their function is vital for numerous physiological processes, in particular of neurons and muscle cells. Potentially reversible oxidative regulation of voltage-gated K ⁺ channels by reactive species such as reactive oxygen species (ROS) represents a contributing mechanism of normal cellular plasticity and may play important roles in diverse pathologies including neurodegenerative diseases. Recent Advances: Studies using various protocols of oxidative modification, site-directed mutagenesis, and structural and kinetic modeling provide a broader phenomenology and emerging mechanistic insights. Critical Issues: Physicochemical mechanisms of the functional consequences of oxidative modifications of voltage-gated K ⁺ channels are only beginning to be revealed. In vivo documentation of oxidative modifications of specific amino-acid residues of various voltage-gated K ⁺ channel proteins, including the target specificity issue, is largely absent. Future Directions: High-resolution chemical and proteomic analysis of ion channel proteins with respect to oxidative modification combined with ongoing studies on channel structure and function will provide a better understanding of how the function of voltage-gated K ⁺ channels is tuned by ROS and the corresponding reducing enzymes to meet cellular needs. Antioxid. Redox Signal. 21, 933–952.

LRRC8 family proteins on the plasma membrane play a critical role in cellular osmoregulation by forming volume-regulated anion channels (VRACs) necessary to prevent necrotic cell death. We demonstrate that intracellular LRRC8 proteins acting within lysosomes also play an essential role in cellular osmoregulation. LRRC8 proteins on lysosome membranes generate large lysosomal volume-regulated anion channel (Lyso-VRAC) currents in response to low cytoplasmic ionic strength conditions. When a double-leucine L⁷⁰⁶L⁷⁰⁷ motif at the C terminus of LRRC8A was mutated to alanines, normal plasma membrane VRAC currents were still observed, but Lyso-VRAC currents were absent. We used this targeting mutant, as well as pharmacological tools, to demonstrate that Lyso-VRAC currents are necessary for the formation of large lysosome-derived vacuoles, which store and then expel excess water to maintain cytosolic water homeostasis. Thus, Lyso-VRACs allow lysosomes of mammalian cells to act as the cell`s “bladder.” When Lyso-VRAC current was selectively eliminated, the extent of necrotic cell death to sustained stress was greatly increased, not only in response to hypoosmotic stress, but also to hypoxic and hypothermic stresses. Thus Lyso-VRACs play an essential role in enabling cells to mount successful homeostatic responses to multiple stressors. Significance Cells encountering physiological stresses often become vacuolated, but the source of the vacuoles and their role in causing or ameliorating necrotic cell death are unclear. Studies of cells responding to hypoosmotic, hypoxic, or hypothermic stress revealed that 1) vacuoles are derived from lysosomes, 2) many vacuoles subsequently undergo exocytosis, and 3) blocking either vacuolation or vacuole exocytosis by genetic or pharmacological approaches led to greatly increased necrotic cell death. By storing and then expelling excess water, lysosome-derived vacuoles maintain cytosolic water homeostasis and relieve membrane stress. This basic cellular function was present in all mammalian cell types tested and required ionic strength-sensitive ion channels formed from LRRC8 proteins on lysosomal membranes (Lyso-VRACs) acting in parallel with plasma membrane VRAC channels.