Autophagy-lysosomal defect in human CADASIL vascular smooth muscle cells

•CADASIL is an inherited disease of cerebral vascular cells.•Increased intracellular domain of NOTCH3 in VSMCR133C.•Increased amount of lysosomes co-localized with NOTCH3 in VSMCR133C.•Decreased co-localization of NOTCH3 with LC3 and LAMP2 indicating a defect in the autophagy-lysosomal pathway.•Dysregulation of autophagy-lysosomal signalling pathway in VSMCR133C. Cerebral autosomal dominant arteriopathy with subcortical infarcts and leukoencephalopathy (CADASIL) is a familial progressive degenerative disorder and is caused by mutations in NOTCH3 gene. Previous study reported that mutant NOTCH3 is more prone to form aggregates than wild-type NOTCH3 and the mutant aggregates are resistant to degradation. We hypothesized that aggregation or accumulation of NOTCH3 could be due to impaired lysosomal-autophagy machinery in VSMC. Here, we investigated the possible cause of accumulation/aggregation of NOTCH3 in CADASIL using cerebral VSMCs derived from control and CADASIL patients carrying NOTCH3R133C mutation. Thioflavin-S-staining confirmed the increased accumulation of aggregated NOTCH3 in VSMCR133C compared to VSMCWT. Increased levels of the lysosomal marker, Lamp2, were detected in VSMCR133C, which also showed co-localization with NOTCH3 using double-immunohistochemistry. Increased level of LC3-II/LC3-I ratio was observed in VSMCR133C suggesting an accumulation of autophagosomes. This was coupled with the decreased co-localization of NOTCH3 with LC3, and Lamp2 and, further, increase of p62/SQSTM1 levels in VSMCR133C compared to the VSMCWT. In addition, Western blot analysis indicated phosphorylation of p-ERK, p-S6RP, and p-P70 S6K. Altogether, these results suggested a dysfunction in the autophagy-lysosomal pathway in VSMCR133C. The present study provides an interesting avenue of the research investigating the molecular mechanism of CADASIL.