Chaperone-mediated autophagy maintains glioma stem cell activity controlling different proteomic and transcriptomic pathways

Chaperone-mediated autophagy (CMA) is a homeostatic process essential for the lysosomal degradation of individual proteins. CMA activity directly depends on the levels of LAMP2A, critical receptor at the lysosomal membrane, to which CMA substrate proteins are bound. In glioblastoma (GBM), the most common and aggressive brain cancer in the adulthood, high levels of LAMP2A have been linked to TMZ resistance and tumor-associated pericytes. However, the implication of LAMP2A, and hence CMA, in glioblastoma stem cells (GSCs) remains unknown. In this work, we show that LAMP2A expression is enriched in patient-derived GSC population and its knock-down diminishes GSCs tumorigenic activities. Proteomic and transcriptomic analysis of LAMP2A knocked-down GSCs revealed reduced extracellular matrix (ECM) interaction effectors in both analyses. Moreover, immune system and mitochondrial metabolism related pathways were remarkably deregulated at proteome level, whereas PI3K-AKT and p53 pathways were altered in RNAseq study. Moreover, clinical samples of GBM tissue presented overexpression of LAMP2 and its high levels correlated with advanced glioma grade and poor overall survival. In conclusion, we identified a novel role of CMA directly regulating GSCs activity via multiple pathways at proteome and transcriptome level.