Mitochondrial fission in Huntington's disease mouse striatum disrupts ER-mitochondria contacts leading to disturbances in Ca2+ efflux and Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS) homeostasis

Mitochondria-associated membranes (MAMs) are dynamic structures that communicate endoplasmic reticulum (ER) and mitochondria allowing calcium transfer between these two organelles. Since calcium dysregulation is an important hallmark of several neurodegenerative diseases, disruption of MAMs has been speculated to contribute to pathological features associated with these neurodegenerative processes. In Huntington's disease (HD), mutant huntingtin induces the selective loss of medium spiny neurons within the striatum. The cause of this specific susceptibility remain unclear. However, defects on mitochondrial dynamics and bioenergetics have been proposed as critical contributors, causing accumulation of fragmented mitochondria and subsequent Ca homeostasis alterations. In the present work, we show that aberrant Drp1-mediated mitochondrial fragmentation within the striatum of HD mutant mice, forces mitochondria to place far away from the ER disrupting the ER-mitochondria association and therefore causing drawbacks in Ca efflux and an excessive production of mitochondria superoxide species. Accordingly, inhibition of Drp1 activity by Mdivi-1 treatment restored ER-mitochondria contacts, mitochondria dysfunction and Ca homeostasis. In sum, our results give new insight on how defects on mitochondria dynamics may contribute to striatal vulnerability in HD and highlights MAMs dysfunction as an important factor involved in HD striatal pathology.