Amino-terminal proteolytic fragment of the axon growth inhibitor Nogo-A (Rtn4A) is upregulated by injury and promotes axon regeneration

After adult mammalian central nervous system injury, axon regeneration is extremely limited or absent, resulting in persistent neurological deficits. Axon regeneration failure is due in part to the presence of inhibitory proteins, including NogoA (Rtn4A), from which two inhibitory domains have been defined. When these inhibitory domains are deleted, but an amino-terminal domain is still expressed in a gene trap line, mice show axon regeneration and enhanced recovery from injury. In contrast, when there is no amino-terminal Nogo-A fragment in the setting of inhibitory domain deletion, then axon regeneration and recovery are indistinguishable from WT. These data indicated that an amino-terminal Nogo-A fragment derived from the gene trap might promote axon regeneration, but this had not been tested directly and production of this fragment without gene targeting was unclear. Here, we describe posttranslation production of an amino-terminal fragment of Nogo-A from the intact gene product. This fragment is created by proteolysis near amino acid G214-N215 and levels are enhanced by axotomy. Furthermore, this fragment promotes axon regeneration in vitro and acts cell autonomously in neurons, in contrast to the inhibitory extracellular action of other Nogo-A domains.Proteins interacting with the amino-terminal Nogo-A fragment by immunoprecipitation include HSPA8 (HSC70, HSP7C). Suppression of HSPA8 expression by shRNA decreases axon regeneration from cerebral cortical neurons and overexpression increases axon regeneration. Moreover, the amino-terminal Nogo-A fragment increases HSPA8 chaperone activity. These data provide an explanation for varied results in different gene-targeted Nogo-A mice, as well as revealing an axon regeneration promoting domain of Nogo-A.