Project description:Mitochondrial Ca2+ (mCa2+) plays an important role in regulating cardiac metabolism and physiology. However, its contribution to metabolic and functional defects in the hearts of type 2 diabetic mice (T2D) is not well understood. Ca2+ is imported into mitochondria by the mitochondrial calcium uniporter complex (MCUC) which is a highly selective multimeric Ca2+ ion channel composed of pore-forming, scaffold, and regulatory subunits. Here, we describe new mechanisms involving the MCUC inhibitory subunit MCUb and its role in determining cardiac dysfunction by linking cardiac mitochondrial metabolism and contractile function. Hearts from T2D mice were analyzed 5 months following a single streptozotocin (STZ) injection (75 mg/kg) and high fat diet (HFD) feeding, and compared to control hearts from mice fed normal chow. Transcriptional and proteomic profiling were employed to characterize these hearts. Regulation of MCUb gene expression was investigated using a recombinant mutant inactive Cas9 (dCas9)-based gene promoter pull down approach coupled with mass spectrometry (MS). A dominant negative MCUb (MCUb W246R/V251E=dnMCUb) was engineered. dnMCUb was biochemically characterized in vitro, tested in neonatal cardiac myocytes exposed to culture media mimicking the diabetic milieu, and expressed in type 2 diabetic mice for 1 month. The impact of dnMCUb on the cardiac physiology was then investigated using omics as well as functional approaches aimed to highlight metabolic and contractile features. RNA-seq and proteomics analysis revealed that T2D hearts relied almost exclusively on fatty acid oxidative metabolism. In parallel we found a significant increase in MCUb mRNA and protein in T2D hearts, which was associated with decreased mCa2+ import rates. MS analysis of proteins co-precipitated with dCas9 revealed the presence of NCOR2 in control but not in T2D MCUb gene promoters. Downregulation of NCOR2 in isolated cardiac myocytes from control mice recapitulated the increase in MCUb gene expression. The dnMCUb mutant increased MCUC Ca2+ affinity by improving the architecture of the complex. Furthermore, when dnMCUb was introduced to cardiac myocytes and T2D mice we observed increased mitochondrial glucose oxidation, mitochondrial ATP production, and enhanced cardiac function. These were linked to the complete restoration of phospholamban (PLN) phosphorylation via Protein Kinase A (PKA) as revealed by both MS analysis of the phosphoproteome and studies dedicated on PLN only followed by PKA pharmacological inhibition. We detail a new pathological axis in which T2D induces global metabolic adaptations and inflexibility in part due to impaired mCa2+ transport into the mitochondrial matrix, resulting from MCUb overexpression. Moreover, we describe a mCa2+-dependent regulation of cytosolic Ca2+ (cCa2+) trafficking in which mCa2+ regulates the activity of SERCA2a via PKA-dependent phosphorylation of PLN.

Project description:BACKGROUND: Cardiac hypertrophy compensates for increased biomechanical stress of the heart induced by prevalent cardiovascular pathologies, but can result in cardiac failure if left untreated. We hypothesized that the tail-anchored protein Dysferlin with multiple Ca2+-binding C2-domains is critical for the integrity of the transverse-axial tubule (TAT) network inside cardiomyocytes, and contributes to the proliferation of TAT endomembranes during pressure overload-induced cardiac hypertrophy. OBJECTIVE: To reveal the impact of the membrane fusion and repair protein Dysferlin on TAT network stabilization and proliferation necessary for the hypertrophic growth of cardiomyocytes. METHODS AND RESULTS: Super-resolution light and electron microscopy of mouse cardiomyocytes identified a specific localization of Dysferlin in a vesicular compartment in nanometric proximity to contact sites of the TAT network with the sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR), a.k.a. junctional complexes for Ca2+-induced Ca2+ release. Mass spectrometry was used to characterize the cardiac Dysferlin interactome, thereby identifying a novel protein interaction with the membrane-tethering SR protein Juncophilin-2, a known interactor of L-type Ca2+ channels and Ryanodine Receptor Ca2+ release channels in junctional complexes. While the Dysferlin knockout caused a mild progressive phenotype of dilated cardiomyopathy in the mouse heart, global proteome analysis revealed changes preceding systolic failure. Following transverse aortic constriction (TAC), Dysferlin protein expression was significantly increased in hypertrophied wild-type myocardium, while Dysferlin knockout animals presented markedly reduced left-ventricular hypertrophy. Live-cell membrane imaging demonstrated a profound reorganization of the TAT network in wild-type left-ventricular myocytes post-TAC with robust proliferation of axial tubules, which critically depended on the increased expression of Dysferlin within newly-emerging tubule components. CONCLUSIONS: Dysferlin represents a new molecular target in cardiac disease that protects the integrity of tubule-SR junctional complexes for regulated excitation-contraction coupling, and controls TAT network reorganization and tubular membrane proliferation in cardiomyocyte hypertrophy induced by pressure-overload.

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Post-prandial cardiac hypertrophy is sustained by mechanics, epigenetic, and metabolic reprogramming in pythons [ATAC-Seq]

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