Evidence map›Paper›PMID 40781479›Full record

ArticleNature structural & molecular biology2025

Structural analyses define the molecular basis of clusterin chaperone function.

Patricia Yuste-Checa, Alonso I Carvajal, Chenchen Mi, Sarah Paatz, F Ulrich Hartl, Andreas Bracher

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Nature structural & molecular biology, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 9 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
9citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

9 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Clusterin is enriched in plaque-associated astrocytes and localizes to synapses in Alzheimer's disease.Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association · 2026
    Article
  2. Lipid metabolism in moyamoya disease: Emerging evidence, vascular remodeling, and therapeutic implications.Neurological sciences : official journal of the Italian Neurological Society and of the Italian Society of Clinical Neurophysiology · 2026
    Review
  3. Review
  4. Article
  5. Article
  6. ApoJ regulates endothelial lipase activity and stability.Protein science : a publication of the Protein Society · 2026
    Article
  7. Article
  8. PreoperativeFrontiers in bioinformatics · 2026
    Review
  9. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

6 authors.

Patricia Yuste-ChecaDepartment of Cellular Biochemistry, Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry, Martinsried, Germany. yuste@biochem.mpg.de.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1056-3849
Alonso I CarvajalDepartment of Cellular Biochemistry, Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry, Martinsried, Germany.
Chenchen MiDepartment of Cellular Biochemistry, Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry, Martinsried, Germany.
Sarah PaatzDepartment of Cellular Biochemistry, Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry, Martinsried, Germany.
F Ulrich HartlDepartment of Cellular Biochemistry, Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry, Martinsried, Germany. uhartl@biochem.mpg.de.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7941-135X
Andreas BracherDepartment of Cellular Biochemistry, Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry, Martinsried, Germany. bracher@biochem.mpg.de.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8530-7594

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Clusterin (apolipoprotein J), a conserved glycoprotein abundant in blood and cerebrospinal fluid, functions as a molecular chaperone and apolipoprotein. Dysregulation of clusterin is linked to late-onset Alzheimer disease. Despite its prominent role in extracellular proteostasis, the mechanism of clusterin function remained unclear. Here, we present crystal structures of human clusterin, revealing a discontinuous three-domain architecture. Structure-based mutational analysis demonstrated that two disordered, hydrophobic peptide tails enable diverse activities. Resembling the substrate-binding regions of small heat-shock proteins, these sequences mediate clusterin's chaperone function in suppressing amyloid-β, tau and α-synuclein aggregation. In conjunction with conserved surface areas, the tail segments also participate in clusterin binding to cell surface receptors and cellular uptake. While contributing to lipoprotein formation, the hydrophobic tails remain accessible for chaperone function in the lipoprotein complex. The remarkable versatility of these sequences allows clusterin to function alone or bound to lipids in maintaining the solubility of aberrant extracellular proteins and facilitating their clearance by endocytosis and lysosomal degradation.

Indexed as

ClusterinMolecular Chaperonesalpha-SynucleinAmino Acid SequenceAmyloid beta-PeptidesCrystallography, X-RayHumansModels, MolecularProtein BindingProtein Domainsalpha-SynucleinAmyloid beta-PeptidesCLU protein, humanClusterinMolecular Chaperones

Identifiers

PMID40781479
PMCPMC12527946

What OpenQuestion holds

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Registered trials

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.