Genetic studies of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy in Singaporeans identify variants in TNNI3 and TNNT2 that are common in Chinese patients

Background - To assess the genetic architecture of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) in patients of predominantly Chinese ancestry. Methods - We sequenced HCM disease genes in Singaporean patients (n=224) and Singaporean controls (n=3,634), compared findings with additional populations and Caucasian HCM cohorts (n=6,179) and performed in vitro functional studies. Results - Singaporean HCM patients had significantly fewer confidently interpreted HCM disease variants (Pathogenic (P)/Likely Pathogenic (LP):18%, p<0.0001) but an excess of variants of unknown significance (exVUS: 24%, p<0.0001), as compared to Caucasians (P/LP: 31%, exVUS: 7%). Two missense variants in thin filament encoding genes were commonly seen in Singaporean HCM (TNNI3:p.R79C, disease allele frequency (AF)=0.018; TNNT2:p.R286H, disease AF=0.022) and are enriched in Singaporean HCM when compared with Asian controls (TNNI3:p.R79C, Singaporean controls AF=0.0055, p=0.0057, gnomAD-East Asian (gnomAD-EA) AF=0.0062, p=0.0086; TNNT2:p.R286H, Singaporean controls AF=0.0017, p<0.0001, gnomAD-EA AF=0.0009, p<0.0001). Both these variants have conflicting annotations in ClinVar and are of low penetrance (TNNI3:p.R79C, 0.7%; TNNT2:p.R286H, 2.7%) but are predicted to be deleterious by computational tools. In population controls, TNNI3:p.R79C carriers had significantly thicker left ventricular walls compared to non-carriers while its etiological fraction is limited (0.70, 95% CI: 0.35-0.86) and thus TNNI3:p.R79C is considered a VUS. Mutant TNNT2:p.R286H iPSC-CMs show hypercontractility, increased metabolic requirements and cellular hypertrophy and the etiological fraction (0.93, 95% CI: 0.83-0.97) support the likely pathogenicity of TNNT2:p.R286H. Conclusions - As compared to Caucasians, Chinese HCM patients commonly have low penetrance risk alleles in TNNT2 or TNNI3 but exhibit few clinically actionable HCM variants overall. This highlights the need for greater study of HCM genetics in non-Caucasian populations

Myosin sequestration regulates sarcomere function, cardiomyocyte energetics, and metabolism, informing the pathogenesis of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy

Background: Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) is caused by pathogenic variants in sarcomere protein genes that evoke hypercontractility, poor relaxation, and increased energy consumption by the heart and increased patient risks for arrhythmias and heart failure. Recent studies show that pathogenic missense variants in myosin, the molecular motor of the sarcomere, are clustered in residues that participate in dynamic conformational states of sarcomere proteins. We hypothesized that these conformations are essential to adapt contractile output for energy conservation and that pathophysiology of HCM results from destabilization of these conformations. Methods: We assayed myosin ATP binding to define the proportions of myosin in SRX or DRX conformations in healthy rodent and human hearts, at baseline and in response to reduced hemodynamic demands of hibernation or pathogenic HCM variants. To determine the relationships between myosin conformations, sarcomere function, and cell biology we assessed contractility, relaxation, and cardiomyocyte morphology and metabolism, with and without an allosteric modulator of myosin ATPase activity. We then tested whether the positions of myosin variants with unknown clinical significance (VUS) that were identified in HCM patients, predicted functional consequences and associations with heart failure and arrhythmias. Results: Myosins undergo physiologic shifts between SRX conformations that maximized energy-conservation and active states (DRX) that enable cross-bridge formation with greater ATP consumption. Systemic hemodynamic requirements, pharmacologic modulators of myosin, and pathogenic myosin missense mutations influenced the proportions of these conformations. Hibernation increased SRX conformations while pathogenic variants destabilized these and increased the proportion of DRX myosins, which enhanced cardiomyocyte contractility but impaired relaxation, and evoked hypertrophic remodeling with increased energetic stress. Using structural locations to stratify VUS, we showed that variants that unbalanced myosin conformations were associated with higher rates of heart failure and arrhythmias in HCM patients. Conclusions: Myosin conformations establish work-energy equipoise that is essential for life-long cellular homeostasis and heart function. Destabilization of myosin energy conserving states promotes contractile abnormalities, morphological and metabolic remodeling and adverse clinical outcomes in HCM patients. Therapeutic restabilization corrects cellular contractile and metabolic phenotypes and may limit these adverse clinical outcomes in HCM patients.</p