S100A1: A Regulator of Striated Muscle Sarcoplasmic Reticulum Ca2+ Handling, Sarcomeric, and Mitochondrial Function

Calcium (Ca2+) signaling plays a key role in a wide range of physiological functions including control of cardiac and skeletal muscle performance. To assure a precise coordination of both temporally and spatially transduction of intracellular Ca2+ oscillations to downstream signaling networks and target operations, Ca2+ cycling regulation in muscle tissue is conducted by a plethora of diverse molecules. Ca2+ S100A1 is a member of the Ca2+-binding S100 protein family and represents the most abundant S100 isoform in cardiac and skeletal muscle. Early studies revealed distinct expression patterns of S100A1 in healthy and diseased cardiac tissue from animal models and humans. Further elaborate investigations uncovered S100A1 protein as a basic requirement for striated muscle Ca2+ handling integrity. S100A1 is a critical regulator of cardiomyocyte Ca2+ cycling and contractile performance. S100A1-mediated inotropy unfolds independent and on top of βAR-stimulated contractility with unchanged βAR downstream signaling. S100A1 has further been detected at different sites within the cardiac sarcomere indicating potential roles in myofilament function. More recently, a study reported a mitochondrial location of S100A1 in cardiomyocytes. Additionally, normalizing the level of S100A1 protein by means of viral cardiac gene transfer in animal heart failure models resulted in a disrupted progression towards cardiac failure and enhanced survival. This brief review is confined to the physiological and pathophysiological relevance of S100A1 in cardiac and skeletal muscle Ca2+ handling with a particular focus on its potential as a molecular target for future therapeutic interventions

Orai1 deficiency leads to heart failure and skeletal myopathy in zebrafish.

Mutations in the store-operated Ca²⁺ entry pore protein ORAI1 have been reported to cause myopathies in human patients but the mechanism involved is not known. Cardiomyocytes express ORAI1 but its role in heart function is also unknown. Using reverse genetics in zebrafish, we demonstrated that inactivation of the highly conserved zebrafish orthologue of ORAI1 resulted in severe heart failure, reduced ventricular systolic function, bradycardia and skeletal muscle weakness. Electron microscopy of Orai1-deficient myocytes revealed progressive skeletal muscle instability with loss of myofiber integrity and ultrastructural abnormalities of the z-disc in both skeletal and cardiac muscle. Isolated Orai1-deficient cardiomyocytes showed loss of the calcineurin-associated protein calsarcin from the z-discs. Furthermore, we found mechanosignal transduction was affected in Orai1-depleted hearts, indicating an essential role for ORAI1 in establishing the cardiac signaling transduction machinery at the z-disc. Our findings identify ORAI1 as an important regulator of cardiac and skeletal muscle function and provide evidence linking ORAI1-mediated calcium signaling to sarcomere integrity and cardiomyocyte function

PRAS40 suppresses atherogenesis through inhibition of mTORC1-dependent pro-inflammatory signaling in endothelial cells

Endothelial pro-inflammatory activation plays a pivotal role in atherosclerosis, and many pro-inflammatory and atherogenic signals converge upon mechanistic target of rapamycin (mTOR). Inhibitors of mTOR complex 1 (mTORC1) reduced atherosclerosis in preclinical studies, but side effects including insulin resistance and dyslipidemia limit their clinical use in this context. Therefore, we investigated PRAS40, a cell type-specific endogenous modulator of mTORC1, as alternative target. Indeed, we previously found PRAS40 gene therapy to improve metabolic profile; however, its function in endothelial cells and its role in atherosclerosis remain unknown. Here we show that PRAS40 negatively regulates endothelial mTORC1 and pro-inflammatory signaling. Knockdown of PRAS40 in endothelial cells promoted TNFα-induced mTORC1 signaling, proliferation, upregulation of inflammatory markers and monocyte recruitment. In contrast, PRAS40-overexpression blocked mTORC1 and all measures of pro-inflammatory signaling. These effects were mimicked by pharmacological mTORC1-inhibition with torin1. In an in vivo model of atherogenic remodeling, mice with induced endothelium-specific PRAS40 deficiency showed enhanced endothelial pro-inflammatory activation as well as increased neointimal hyperplasia and atherosclerotic lesion formation. These data indicate that PRAS40 suppresses atherosclerosis via inhibition of endothelial mTORC1-mediated pro-inflammatory signaling. In conjunction with its favourable effects on metabolic homeostasis, this renders PRAS40 a potential target for the treatment of atherosclerosis

Genomic structural variations lead to dysregulation of important coding and non-coding RNA species in dilated cardiomyopathy

The transcriptome needs to be tightly regulated by mechanisms that include transcription factors, enhancers, and repressors as well as non-coding RNAs. Besides this dynamic regulation, a large part of phenotypic variability of eukaryotes is expressed through changes in gene transcription caused by genetic variation. In this study, we evaluate genome-wide structural genomic variants (SVs) and their association with gene expression in the human heart. We detected 3,898 individual SVs affecting all classes of gene transcripts (e.g., mRNA, miRNA, lncRNA) and regulatory genomic regions (e.g., enhancer or TFBS). In a cohort of patients (n = 50) with dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM), 80,635 non-protein-coding elements of the genome are deleted or duplicated by SVs, containing 3,758 long non-coding RNAs and 1,756 protein-coding transcripts. 65.3% of the SV-eQTLs do not harbor a significant SNV-eQTL, and for the regions with both classes of association, we find similar effect sizes. In case of deleted protein-coding exons, we find downregulation of the associated transcripts, duplication events, however, do not show significant changes over all events. In summary, we are first to describe the genomic variability associated with SVs in heart failure due to DCM and dissect their impact on the transcriptome. Overall, SVs explain up to 7.5% of the variation of cardiac gene expression, underlining the importance to study human myocardial gene expression in the context of the individual genome. This has immediate implications for studies on basic mechanisms of cardiac maladaptation, biomarkers, and (gene) therapeutic studies alike

Role of Cpeb4 in the heart

Here we defined RBPs in healthy and diseased primary cardiomyocytes at a system-wide level by RNA Interactome Capture. This identified 67 novel cardiomyocyte specific RBPs including several contractile proteins. Furthermore, we identified Cytoplasmic polyadenylation element binding protein 4 (Cpeb4) as a dynamic mRBP in diseased cardiomyocytes, regulating cardiac growth both in vitro and in vivo. To study Cpeb4 in cardiomyocytes, we identified mRNAs bound to and regulated by Cpeb4. Cpeb4 regulates cardiac remodeling by differential expression of transcription factors. Among Cpeb4 target mRNAs, two Zinc finger transcription factors (Zeb1 and Zbtb20) were identified. We show that Cpeb4 regulates the translation of these mRNAs and that Cpeb4 depletion increases their expression

Laser welding of grey cast iron with spheroidal graphite-influence of process parameters on crack formationand hardness

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