Proinflammation effect of Mst1 promotes BV‐2 cell death via augmenting Drp1‐mediated mitochondrial fragmentation and activating the JNK pathway

Abstract Inflammation has been increasingly studied as part of the pathophysiology of neurodegenerative diseases. Mammalian Ste20‐like kinase 1 (Mst1), a key factor of the Hippo pathway, is connected to cell death. Unfortunately, little study has been performed to detect the impact of Mst1 in neuroninflammation. The results indicated that Mst1 expression was upregulated because of LPS treatment. However, the loss of Mst1 sustained BV‐2 cell viability and promoted cell survival in the presence of LPS treatment. Molecular investigation assay demonstrated that Mst1 deletion was followed by a drop in the levels of mitochondrial fission via repressing Drp1 expression. However, Drp1 adenovirus transfection reduced the protective impacts of Mst1 knockdown on mitochondrial stress and neuronal dysfunction. Finally, our results illuminated that Mst1 affected Drp1 content and mitochondrial fission in a JNK‐dependent mechanism. Reactivation of the JNK axis inhibited Mst1 knockdown‐mediated neuronal protection and mitochondrial homeostasis. Altogether, our results indicated that Mst1 upregulation and the activation of JNK‐Drp1‐mitochondrial fission pathway could be considered as the novel mechanism regulating the progression of neuroninflammation. This finding would pave a new road for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases via modulating the Mst1‐JNK‐Drp1‐mitochondrial fission axis.