ABSTRACT: Dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) is a severe, non-ischemic heart disease, which ultimately results in heart failure (HF). Pathological genetic variants in LMNA cause DCM, which currently lacks specific treatment. Perturbing candidates related to dysregulated pathways have shown to ameliorate LMNA DCM, but their long-term efficacy as potential therapeutic targets is unknown. Here, we evaluated 14 potential candidates including Lmna gene products, key signaling pathways, calcium handling, proliferation regulators and Lamin interacting proteins, in a cardiac-specific Lmna DCM model. The candidates with improved cardiac function were further assessed through survival analysis. After comparing cardiac function, marker gene expression, Tgfβ signaling pathway activation, fibrosis, inflammation, proliferation, and DNA damage, we uncovered that restored cardiac function significantly correlated with suppression of HF/fibrosis marker expression and cardiac fibrosis in Lmna DCM. Interestingly, Lamin C or Sun1 shRNA administration achieved consistent, prolonged survival which highly correlated with reduced heart inflammation and DNA damage. In addition to Sun1 shRNA, perturbing the interaction between the nucleoskeleton and cytoskeleton via the KASH domain of Nesprin1 also effectively suppressed Lmna DCM. In contrast, Lamin A supplementation did not rescue long term survival and may impart a detrimental cardiotoxicity risk. Furthermore, transcriptome profiling was used to compare the differences between Lamin A and Lamin C treatment. Mechanistically, we identified that this lapse was attributed to a dose-dependent toxicity of Lamin A, which was independent of its maturation. This study highlights the potential for advancing Lamin C and Sun1 as therapeutic targets for the treatment of LMNA DCM.
