Drosophila Filamin exhibits a mechano-protective role during nephrocyte injury via induction of hypertrophic growth

Podocytes are highly specialized epithelial cells of the kidney glomerulus and are an essential part of the filtration barrier. Due to their position and function in the kidney, they are exposed to constant biomechanical forces such as shear stress and hydrostatic pressure. These forces increase during disease, resulting in podocyte injury and loss. The mechanism by which biomechanical forces are sensed and transduced to elicit an adaptive and protective response remains largely unknown. Here we show, using the Drosophila nephrocyte model, that the mechanosensor Cheerio (dFilamin) is central to this mechano-protective mechanism. We found expression of an activated mechanosensitive variant of Cheerio induced hypertrophy and rescued filtration function in injured nephrocytes. Additional analysis with human Filamin B confirmed this mechano-protective role. We delineated the mechano-protective pathway downstream of Cheerio and found activation of TOR and Yorkie induce nephrocyte hypertrophy, whereas their repression reversed the Cheerio-mediated hypertrophy. Although Cheerio/Filamin B pathway mediates a mechano-protective role in the face of injury, we found excessive activity resulted in a pathological phenotype, indicating activity levels must be tightly controlled. Taken together, our data suggest that Cheerio acts via the TOR and YAP pathway to induce hypertrophic growth, as a mechano-protective response to nephrocyte injury.