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The deposition of highly ordered fibrillar-type aggregates into inclusion bodies is a hallmark of neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s disease. The high stability of such amyloid fibril aggregates makes them challenging substrates for the cellular protein quality-control machinery 1 , 2 . However, the human HSP70 chaperone and its co-chaperones DNAJB1 and HSP110 can dissolve preformed fibrils of the Parkinson’s disease-linked presynaptic protein α-synuclein in vitro 3 , 4 . The underlying mechanisms of this unique activity remain poorly understood. Here we use biochemical tools and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy to determine the crucial steps of the disaggregation process of amyloid fibrils. We find that DNAJB1 specifically recognizes the oligomeric form of α-synuclein via multivalent interactions, and selectively targets HSP70 to fibrils. HSP70 and DNAJB1 interact with the fibril through exposed, flexible amino and carboxy termini of α-synuclein rather than the amyloid core itself. The synergistic action of DNAJB1 and HSP110 strongly accelerates disaggregation by facilitating the loading of several HSP70 molecules in a densely packed arrangement at the fibril surface, which is ideal for the generation of ‘entropic pulling’ forces. The cooperation of DNAJB1 and HSP110 in amyloid disaggregation goes beyond the classical substrate targeting and recycling functions that are attributed to these HSP70 co-chaperones and constitutes an active and essential contribution to the remodelling of the amyloid substrate. These mechanistic insights into the essential prerequisites for amyloid disaggregation may provide a basis for new therapeutic interventions in neurodegeneration. The molecular steps that lead to the disaggregation of amyloid fibrils are shown to involve the synergistic action of HSP70 and its co-chaperones DNAJB1 and HSP110.

Accumulation of aggregation‐prone misfolded proteins disrupts normal cellular function and promotes ageing and disease. Bacteria, fungi and plants counteract this by solubilizing and refolding aggregated proteins via a powerful cytosolic ATP‐dependent bichaperone system, comprising the AAA+ disaggregase Hsp100 and the Hsp70‐Hsp40 system. Metazoa, however, lack Hsp100 disaggregases. We show that instead the Hsp110 member of the Hsp70 superfamily remodels the human Hsp70‐Hsp40 system to efficiently disaggregate and refold aggregates of heat and chemically denatured proteins in vitro and in cell extracts. This Hsp110 effect relies on nucleotide exchange, not on ATPase activity, implying ATP‐driven chaperoning is not required. Knock‐down of nematode Caenorhabditis elegans Hsp110, but not an unrelated nucleotide exchange factor, compromises dissolution of heat‐induced protein aggregates and severely shortens lifespan after heat shock. We conclude that in metazoa, Hsp70‐Hsp40 powered by Hsp110 nucleotide exchange represents the crucial disaggregation machinery that reestablishes protein homeostasis to counteract protein unfolding stress. Aggregation of misfolded proteins disrupts cellular homeostasis leading to ageing and disease. In metazoa, the nucleotide exchange factor Hsp110 acts together with the human Hsp70‐Hsp40 chaperone system to promote protein disaggregation and longevity.

The 70-kDa heat shock proteins (Hsp70s) are ubiquitous molecular chaperones that act in a large variety of cellular protein folding and remodelling processes. They function virtually at all stages of the life of proteins from synthesis to degradation and are thus crucial for maintaining protein homeostasis, with direct implications for human health. A large set of co-chaperones comprising J-domain proteins and nucleotide exchange factors regulate the ATPase cycle of Hsp70s, which is allosterically coupled to substrate binding and release. Moreover, Hsp70s cooperate with other cellular chaperone systems including Hsp90, Hsp60 chaperonins, small heat shock proteins and Hsp100 AAA+ disaggregases, together constituting a dynamic and functionally versatile network for protein folding, unfolding, regulation, targeting, aggregation and disaggregation, as well as degradation. In this Review we describe recent advances that have increased our understanding of the molecular mechanisms and working principles of the Hsp70 network. This knowledge showcases how the Hsp70 chaperone system controls diverse cellular functions, and offers new opportunities for the development of chemical compounds that modulate disease-related Hsp70 activities.

Hsp70 participates in a broad spectrum of protein folding processes extending from nascent chain folding to protein disaggregation. This versatility in function is achieved through a diverse family of J-protein cochaperones that select substrates for Hsp70. Substrate selection is further tuned by transient complexation between different classes of J-proteins, which expands the range of protein aggregates targeted by metazoan Hsp70 for disaggregation. We assessed the prevalence and evolutionary conservation of J-protein complexation and cooperation in disaggregation. We find the emergence of a eukaryote-specific signature for interclass complexation of canonical J-proteins. Consistently, complexes exist in yeast and human cells, but not in bacteria, and correlate with cooperative action in disaggregation in vitro. Signature alterations exclude some J-proteins from networking, which ensures correct J-protein pairing, functional network integrity and J-protein specialization. This fundamental change in J-protein biology during the prokaryote-to-eukaryote transition allows for increased fine-tuning and broadening of Hsp70 function in eukaryotes. All cells must maintain their proteins in a correctly folded shape to survive. The task of sustaining a healthy set of proteins has increased with the rise of complex life from prokaryotes (such as bacteria) that form simple single-celled organisms to eukaryotes (such as yeast, plants and multicellular animals). As a result of organisms ageing or acquiring genetic mutations, or under stressful conditions such as high temperature, proteins can lose their normal shape and clump together to form “aggregates”. These aggregates are potentially toxic to cells and have been linked to many human diseases including neurodegeneration and cancer. Cells contain molecular machines that help break down aggregates and subsequently recycle or rescue trapped proteins. Some of these machines are based around a protein called Hsp70, which can perform a wide range of protein folding processes. So-called J-proteins help Hsp70 to select aggregates to be targeted for break down. It used to be thought that different classes of J-proteins interacted with Hsp70 separately. However, in 2015, researchers showed that in humans, two different classes of J-proteins can bind to each other to form a “complex”, which has distinct aggregate selection properties. Now, Nillegoda et al. – including several of the researchers involved in the 2015 study – have examined the evolutionary history of these J-protein complexes. This revealed that different classes (A and B) of J-proteins first cooperated after prokaryotes and eukaryotes diverged from each other. In particular, the molecular machinery that breaks down aggregates in yeast cells – but not the machinery found in bacteria – depends on complexes formed from the two classes of J-proteins. Further investigation revealed that in humans, J-proteins have structural features that ensure they pair up correctly to perform unique activities. Furthermore, Nillegoda et al. suggest that cooperation between J-proteins may have enabled organisms such as humans – which contain over 40 distinct J-proteins – to carry out further specialized protein-folding tasks that do not occur in prokaryotes. Overall, the findings presented by Nillegoda et al. reveal another important layer to protein quality control in eukaryotic cells. The next step is to understand the possible roles of different J-protein complexes play in J-protein associated cellular protein quality control processes such as preventing protein aggregation, refolding or recycling abnormal proteins. This knowledge could ultimately be used to develop treatments for diseases and disorders in which protein aggregates form.

Methods that assay protein foldedness with proteomics have generated censuses of apparent protein folding stabilities in biological milieu. However, different censuses poorly correlate with each other. Here, we show that the reason for this is that methods targeting foldedness through monitoring amino acid sidechain reactivity also detect changes in conformation and ligand binding, which can be a substantial fraction of the data. We show that the reactivity of only one quarter of cysteine or methionine sidechains in proteins in a urea denaturation curve of mammalian cell lysate can be confidently explained by a two-state unfolding isotherm. Contrary to that expected from unfolding, up to one third of the cysteines decreased reactivity. These cysteines were enriched in proteins with functions relating to unfolded protein stress. One protein, chaperone HSPA8, displayed changes arising from ligand and cofactor binding. Unmasking this hidden information using the approaches outlined here should improve efforts to understand both folding and the remodeling of protein function directly in complex biological settings. Proteomics can define features of proteome foldedness by assessing the reactivity of surface exposed amino acids. Here, the authors show that such exposure patterns yield insight to structural changes in chaperones as they bind to unfolded proteins in urea-denatured mammalian cell lysate.

The ubiquitous heat shock protein 70 (HSP70) family consists of ATP-dependent molecular chaperones, which perform numerous cellular functions that affect almost all aspects of the protein life cycle from synthesis to degradation 1 – 3 . Achieving this broad spectrum of functions requires precise regulation of HSP70 activity. Proteins of the HSP40 family, also known as J-domain proteins (JDPs), have a key role in this process by preselecting substrates for transfer to their HSP70 partners and by stimulating the ATP hydrolysis of HSP70, leading to stable substrate binding 3 , 4 . In humans, JDPs constitute a large and diverse family with more than 40 different members 2 , which vary in their substrate selectivity and in the nature and number of their client-binding domains 5 . Here we show that JDPs can also differ fundamentally in their interactions with HSP70 chaperones. Using nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy 6 , 7 we find that the major class B JDPs are regulated by an autoinhibitory mechanism that is not present in other classes. Although in all JDPs the interaction of the characteristic J-domain is responsible for the activation of HSP70, in DNAJB1 the HSP70-binding sites in this domain are intrinsically blocked by an adjacent glycine-phenylalanine rich region—an inhibition that can be released upon the interaction of a second site on DNAJB1 with the HSP70 C-terminal tail. This regulation, which controls substrate targeting to HSP70, is essential for the disaggregation of amyloid fibres by HSP70–DNAJB1, illustrating why no other class of JDPs can substitute for class B in this function. Moreover, this regulatory layer, which governs the functional specificities of JDP co-chaperones and their interactions with HSP70s, could be key to the wide range of cellular functions of HSP70. The binding and activation of HSP70 by class B J-domain proteins is subject to an autoinhibitory regulatory mechanism that controls substrate targeting to HSP70 and is required for the disaggregation of amyloid fibres.

Incorporating fluorescent amino acids by suppression of the TAG amber codon is a useful tool for site-specific labeling of proteins and visualizing their localization in living cells. Here we use a plasmid encoded orthogonal tRNA/aminoacyl-tRNA synthetase pair to site-specifically label firefly luciferase with the environmentally sensitive fluorescent amino acid, 3-(6-acetylnaphthalen-2-ylamino)-2- aminopropanoic acid (ANAP) and explore the detectability of conformational changes in labeled luciferase in the yeast cytoplasm. We find that ANAP labeling efficiency is greatly increased in [PSI+] cells and show that analysis of the ANAP fluorescence emission by confocal imaging allows for tracking the thermal unfolding and aggregation of luciferase in vivo. Furthermore we demonstrate that flow cytometry can be used to study conformational changes in luciferase and chaperone-mediated refolding in quantitative terms and at the level of single cells. This experimental setup for the first time allows for the direct analysis of the folding state of a protein in living cells and may serve as valuable new tool for examining mechanisms of protein folding, misfolding and aggregation.

An efficient protein disaggregation system uncovered in metazoan cells requires transient interactions between J-protein co-chaperones of classes A and B, which synergistically boost HSP70-dependent disaggregation activity, providing a flexible further level of regulation for metazoan protein quality control, with direct relevance to human diseases such as age-related neurodegeneration. A novel protein quality control mechanism Microbes eliminate toxic intracellular protein aggregates thanks to HSP100 disaggregases, which are missing from animal cells. Now Bernd Bukau and colleagues have discovered an efficient protein disaggregation system in metazoan cells, which requires transient interactions between J-protein co-chaperones of classes A and B, which synergistically boost HSP70-dependent disaggregation activity. This system provides a flexible further level of regulation for metazoan protein quality control, with direct relevance to human diseases such as age-related neurodegeneration. Protein aggregates are the hallmark of stressed and ageing cells, and characterize several pathophysiological states 1 , 2 . Healthy metazoan cells effectively eliminate intracellular protein aggregates 3 , 4 , indicating that efficient disaggregation and/or degradation mechanisms exist. However, metazoans lack the key heat-shock protein disaggregase HSP100 of non-metazoan HSP70-dependent protein disaggregation systems 5 , 6 , and the human HSP70 system alone, even with the crucial HSP110 nucleotide exchange factor, has poor disaggregation activity in vitro 4 , 7 . This unresolved conundrum is central to protein quality control biology. Here we show that synergic cooperation between complexed J-protein co-chaperones of classes A and B unleashes highly efficient protein disaggregation activity in human and nematode HSP70 systems. Metazoan mixed-class J-protein complexes are transient, involve complementary charged regions conserved in the J-domains and carboxy-terminal domains of each J-protein class, and are flexible with respect to subunit composition. Complex formation allows J-proteins to initiate transient higher order chaperone structures involving HSP70 and interacting nucleotide exchange factors. A network of cooperative class A and B J-protein interactions therefore provides the metazoan HSP70 machinery with powerful, flexible, and finely regulatable disaggregase activity and a further level of regulation crucial for cellular protein quality control.

A Correction to this paper has been published: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-020-03090-x.

The Second International Symposium on Cellular and Organismal Stress Responses took place virtually on September 8–9, 2022. This meeting was supported by the Cell Stress Society International (CSSI) and organized by Patricija Van Oosten-Hawle and Andrew Truman (University of North Carolina at Charlotte, USA) and Mehdi Mollapour (SUNY Upstate Medical University, USA). The goal of this symposium was to continue the theme from the initial meeting in 2020 by providing a platform for established researchers, new investigators, postdoctoral fellows, and students to present and exchange ideas on various topics on cellular stress and chaperones. We will summarize the highlights of the meeting here and recognize those that received recognition from the CSSI.