Project description:AimThe aim of the study was to compare the functional and structural properties of the motor protein, myosin, and isolated myocyte contractility in heart muscle excised from hypertrophic cardiomyopathy patients by surgical myectomy with explanted failing heart and non-failing donor heart muscle.MethodsMyosin was isolated and studied using an in vitro motility assay. The distribution of myosin light chain-1 isoforms was measured by two-dimensional electrophoresis. Myosin light chain-2 phosphorylation was measured by sodium dodecyl sulphate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis using Pro-Q Diamond phosphoprotein stain.ResultsThe fraction of actin filaments moving when powered by myectomy myosin was 21% less than with donor myosin (P = 0.006), whereas the sliding speed was not different (0.310 +/- 0.034 for myectomy myosin vs. 0.305 +/- 0.019 microm/s for donor myosin in six paired experiments). Failing heart myosin showed 18% reduced motility. One myectomy myosin sample produced a consistently higher sliding speed than donor heart myosin and was identified with a disease-causing heavy chain mutation (V606M). In myectomy myosin, the level of atrial light chain-1 relative to ventricular light chain-1 was 20 +/- 5% compared with 11 +/- 5% in donor heart myosin and the level of myosin light chain-2 phosphorylation was decreased by 30-45%. Isolated cardiomyocytes showed reduced contraction amplitude (1.61 +/- 0.25 vs. 3.58 +/- 0.40%) and reduced relaxation rates compared with donor myocytes (TT(50%) = 0.32 +/- 0.09 vs. 0.17 +/- 0.02 s).ConclusionContractility in myectomy samples resembles the hypocontractile phenotype found in end-stage failing heart muscle irrespective of the primary stimulus, and this phenotype is not a direct effect of the hypertrophy-inducing mutation. The presence of a myosin heavy chain mutation causing hypertrophic cardiomyopathy can be predicted from a simple functional assay.
Project description:The human hypertrophic cardiomyopathy mutation R453C results in one of the more severe forms of the myopathy. Arg-453 is found in a conserved surface loop of the upper 50-kDa domain of the myosin motor domain and lies between the nucleotide binding pocket and the actin binding site. It connects to the cardiomyopathy loop via a long ?-helix, helix O, and to Switch-2 via the fifth strand of the central ?-sheet. The mutation is, therefore, in a position to perturb a wide range of myosin molecular activities. We report here the first detailed biochemical kinetic analysis of the motor domain of the human ?-cardiac myosin carrying the R453C mutation. A recent report of the same mutation (Sommese, R. F., Sung, J., Nag, S., Sutton, S., Deacon, J. C., Choe, E., Leinwand, L. A., Ruppel, K., and Spudich, J. A. (2013) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 110, 12607-12612) found reduced ATPase and in vitro motility but increased force production using an optical trap. Surprisingly, our results show that the mutation alters few biochemical kinetic parameters significantly. The exceptions are the rate constants for ATP binding to the motor domain (reduced by 35%) and the ATP hydrolysis step/recovery stroke (slowed 3-fold), which could be the rate-limiting step for the ATPase cycle. Effects of the mutation on the recovery stroke are consistent with a perturbation of Switch-2 closure, which is required for the recovery stroke and the subsequent ATP hydrolysis.
Project description:Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) affects 1 in 500 people and leads to hyper-contractility of the heart. Nearly 40 percent of HCM-causing mutations are found in human ?-cardiac myosin. Previous studies looking at the effect of HCM mutations on the force, velocity and ATPase activity of the catalytic domain of human ?-cardiac myosin have not shown clear trends leading to hypercontractility at the molecular scale. Here we present functional data showing that four separate HCM mutations located at the myosin head-tail (R249Q, H251N) and head-head (D382Y, R719W) interfaces of a folded-back sequestered state referred to as the interacting heads motif (IHM) lead to a significant increase in the number of heads functionally accessible for interaction with actin. These results provide evidence that HCM mutations can modulate myosin activity by disrupting intramolecular interactions within the proposed sequestered state, which could lead to hypercontractility at the molecular level.
Project description:To understand the interplay between cardiomyocyte and nonmyocyte cell types in human obstructive and non-obstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, single nuclei RNA-sequencing was performed on 2 unused donor hearts, 1 obstructive HCM specimen, and 6 non-obstructive HCM specimens.
Project description:Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) affects 1 in 500 individuals and is an important cause of arrhythmias and heart failure. Clinically, HCM is characterized as causing hypercontractility, and therapies are aimed toward controlling the hyperactive physiology. Mutations in the ?-cardiac myosin comprise ~40% of genetic mutations associated with HCM, and the converter domain of myosin is a hotspot for HCM-causing mutations; however, the underlying primary effects of these mutations on myosin's biomechanical function remain elusive. We hypothesize that these mutations affect the biomechanical properties of myosin, such as increasing its intrinsic force and/or its duty ratio and therefore the ensemble force of the sarcomere. Using recombinant human ?-cardiac myosin, we characterize the molecular effects of three severe HCM-causing converter domain mutations: R719W, R723G, and G741R. Contrary to our hypothesis, the intrinsic forces of R719W and R723G mutant myosins are decreased compared to wild type and unchanged for G741R. Actin and regulated thin filament gliding velocities are ~15% faster for R719W and R723G myosins, whereas there is no change in velocity for G741R. Adenosine triphosphatase activities and the load-dependent velocity change profiles of all three mutant proteins are very similar to those of wild type. These results indicate that the net biomechanical properties of human ?-cardiac myosin carrying these converter domain mutations are very similar to those of wild type or are even slightly hypocontractile, leading us to consider an alternative mechanism for the clinically observed hypercontractility. Future work includes how these mutations affect protein interactions within the sarcomere that increase the availability of myosin heads participating in force production.
Project description:AIMS:A 25-base pair deletion in the cardiac myosin binding protein-C (cMyBP-C) gene (MYBPC3), proposed to skip exon 33, modifies the C10 domain (cMyBP-C?C10mut) and is associated with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) and heart failure, affecting approximately 100 million South Asians. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying the pathogenicity of cMyBP-C?C10mutin vivo are unknown. We hypothesized that expression of cMyBP-C?C10mut exerts a poison polypeptide effect leading to improper assembly of cardiac sarcomeres and the development of HCM. METHODS AND RESULTS:To determine whether expression of cMyBP-C?C10mut is sufficient to cause HCM and contractile dysfunction in vivo, we generated transgenic (TG) mice having cardiac-specific protein expression of cMyBP-C?C10mut at approximately half the level of endogenous cMyBP-C. At 12?weeks of age, significant hypertrophy was observed in TG mice expressing cMyBP-C?C10mut (heart weight/body weight ratio: 4.43?±?0.11?mg/g non-transgenic (NTG) vs. 5.34?±?0.25?mg/g cMyBP-C?C10mut, P?<?0.05). Furthermore, haematoxylin and eosin, Masson's trichrome staining, as well as second-harmonic generation imaging revealed the presence of significant fibrosis and a greater relative nuclear area in cMyBP-C?C10mut hearts compared with NTG controls. M-mode echocardiography analysis revealed hypercontractile hearts (EF: 53.4%±2.9% NTG vs. 66.4% ± 4.7% cMyBP-C?C10mut; P?<?0.05) and early diastolic dysfunction (E/E': 28.7?±?3.7 NTG vs. 46.3?±?8.4 cMyBP-C?C10mut; P?<?0.05), indicating the presence of an HCM phenotype. To assess whether these changes manifested at the myofilament level, contractile function of single skinned cardiomyocytes was measured. Preserved maximum force generation and increased Ca2+-sensitivity of force generation were observed in cardiomyocytes from cMyBP-C?C10mut mice compared with NTG controls (EC50: 3.6?±?0.02?µM NTG vs. 2.90?±?0.01?µM cMyBP-C?C10mut; P?<?0.0001). CONCLUSION:Expression of cMyBP-C protein with a modified C10 domain is sufficient to cause contractile dysfunction and HCM in vivo.
Project description:BackgroundNonsustained ventricular tachycardia (NSVT) is an independent risk factor for sudden cardiac death (SCD) in patients with hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy (HOCM). However, data concerning the correlations of cardiac biomarkers and NSVT in HOCM are rather limited.HypothesisOur study aimed to investigate the associations between the occurrence of NSVT and circulating biomarkers representing myocardial injury (cardiac troponin I, cTnI), cardiac function (N-terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide, NT-pro BNP), and inflammation (high-sensitivity C-reactive protein) in a large Chinese HOCM cohort.MethodsA total of 755 consecutive HOCM patients were recruited. Systematic cardiac evaluations and circulating biomarkers were examined routinely in all subjects under the clinically stable status. According to the results of 24-hour Holter monitoring, patients were divided into the NSVT group (n = 138) and the nonventricular tachycardia (non-VT) group (n = 617).ResultsCompared with the non-VT group, circulating levels of both cTnI and NT-pro BNP elevated significantly in patients with positive NSVT episodes (P < .001). Multivariable analyses demonstrated that cTnI was independently associated with the presence of NSVT (OR = 1.675, 95% CI: 1.406-1.994, P < .001). Concentrations of cTnI increased progressively not only with the aggravation of ventricular arrhythmic events (P < .001), but also with the growing risk of SCD in HOCM patients (P < .001). Serum cTnI ≥ 0.0265 ng/mL indicated predictive value for the occurrence of NSVT in the HOCM cohort (area under the curve = 0.707, 95% CI: 0.660-0.754, P < .001).ConclusionsElevated cTnI was an independent determinant of NSVT, and it seemed to be valuable for assessing the clinical status of ventricular arrhythmias and the risk of SCD in patients with HOCM.
Project description:The mechanisms by which truncating mutations in MYBPC3 (encoding cardiac myosin-binding protein C; cMyBPC) or myosin missense mutations cause hypercontractility and poor relaxation in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) are incompletely understood. Using genetic and biochemical approaches, we explored how depletion of cMyBPC altered sarcomere function. We demonstrated that stepwise loss of cMyBPC resulted in reciprocal augmentation of myosin contractility. Direct attenuation of myosin function, via a damaging missense variant (F764L) that causes dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM), normalized the increased contractility from cMyBPC depletion. Depletion of cMyBPC also altered dynamic myosin conformations during relaxation, enhancing the myosin state that enables ATP hydrolysis and thin filament interactions while reducing the super relaxed conformation associated with energy conservation. MYK-461, a pharmacologic inhibitor of myosin ATPase, rescued relaxation deficits and restored normal contractility in mouse and human cardiomyocytes with MYBPC3 mutations. These data define dosage-dependent effects of cMyBPC on myosin that occur across the cardiac cycle as the pathophysiologic mechanisms by which MYBPC3 truncations cause HCM. Therapeutic strategies to attenuate cMyBPC activity may rescue depressed cardiac contractility in patients with DCM, whereas inhibiting myosin by MYK-461 should benefit the substantial proportion of patients with HCM with MYBPC3 mutations.
Project description:Cardiovascular disorders are the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in the developed world, and hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) is among the most frequently occurring inherited cardiac disorders. HCM is caused by mutations in the genes encoding the fundamental force-generating machinery of the cardiac muscle, including ?-cardiac myosin. Here, we present a biomechanical analysis of the HCM-causing mutation, R453C, in the context of human ?-cardiac myosin. We found that this mutation causes a ?30% decrease in the maximum ATPase of the human ?-cardiac subfragment 1, the motor domain of myosin, and a similar percent decrease in the in vitro velocity. The major change in the R453C human ?-cardiac subfragment 1 is a 50% increase in the intrinsic force of the motor compared with wild type, with no appreciable change in the stroke size, as observed with a dual-beam optical trap. These results predict that the overall force of the ensemble of myosin molecules in the muscle should be higher in the R453C mutant compared with wild type. Loaded in vitro motility assay confirms that the net force in the ensemble is indeed increased. Overall, this study suggests that the R453C mutation should result in a hypercontractile state in the heart muscle.
Project description:Hypertrophic cardiomyopathies (HCM) result from distinct single-point mutations in sarcomeric proteins that lead to muscle hypercontractility. While different models account for a pathological increase in the power output, clear understanding of the molecular basis of dysfunction in HCM is the mandatory next step to improve current treatments. Here, we present an optimized quasi-atomic model of the sequestered state of cardiac myosin coupled to X-ray crystallography and in silico analysis of the mechanical compliance of the lever arm, allowing the systematic study of a large set of HCM mutations and the definition of different mutation classes based on their effects on lever arm compliance, sequestered state stability, and motor functions. The present work reconciles previous models and explains how distinct HCM mutations can have disparate effects on the motor mechano-chemical parameters and yet lead to the same disease. The framework presented here can guide future investigations aiming at finding HCM treatments.