Rationale: β 1 -adrenoceptors (β 1 ARs) exist at intracellular membranes and Organic Cation Transporter 3 (OCT3) mediates norepinephrine entry into cardiomyocytes. However, the functional role of intracellular β 1 AR in cardiac contractility remains to be elucidated. Objective: Test localization and function of intracellular β 1 AR on cardiac contractility. Methods and Results: Membrane fractionation, super-resolution imaging, proximity ligation, co-immunoprecipitation and single-molecule pulldown demonstrated a pool of β 1 ARs in mouse hearts that was associated with sarco/endoplasmic reticulum Ca 2+ -ATPase at the sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR). Local protein kinase A (PKA) activation was measured using a PKA biosensor targeted at either the plasma membrane (PM) or SR. Compared to wild type (WT), myocytes lacking OCT3 (OCT3KO) responded identically to the membrane-permeant βAR agonist isoproterenol in PKA activation at both PM and SR. The same was true at the PM for membrane-impermeant norepinephrine, but the SR response to norepinephrine was suppressed in OCT3KO myocytes. This differential effect was recapitulated in phosphorylation of the SR-pump regulator phospholamban. Similarly, OCT3KO selectively suppressed calcium transients and contraction responses to norepinephrine, but not isoproterenol. Furthermore, sotalol, a membrane-impermeant βAR-blocker suppressed isoproterenol-induced PKA activation at the PM, but permitted PKA activation at the SR, phospholamban phosphorylation and contractility. Moreover, pretreatment with sotatol in OCT3KO myocytes prevented norepinephrine induced PKA activation at both PM and the SR and contractility. Conclusions: Functional β 1 ARs exists at the SR and is critical for PKA-mediated phosphorylation of phospholamban and cardiac contractility upon catecholamine stimulation. Activation of these intracellular β 1 ARs requires catecholamine transport via OCT3.
Pre-mRNA splicing is an important biological process that allows production of multiple proteins from a single gene in the genome, and mainly contributes to protein diversity in eukaryotic organisms. Alternative splicing is commonly governed by RNA binding proteins to meet the ever-changing demands of the cell. However, the mis-splicing may lead to human diseases. In the heart of human, mis-regulation of alternative splicing has been associated with heart failure. In this short review, we focus on alternative splicing of sarcomeric genes and review mis-splicing related heart failure with relatively well studied sarcomeric genes and splicing mechanisms with identified regulatory factors. The perspective of alternative splicing based therapeutic strategies in heart failure has also been discussed.
Titin, a giant sarcomeric protein, is largely responsible for the diastolic properties of the heart. It has two major isoforms, N2B and N2BA due to pre-mRNA splicing regulated mainly by a splicing factor RNA binding motif 20 (RBM20). Mis-splicing of titin pre-mRNA in response to external stimuli may lead to altered ratio of N2B to N2BA, and thus, impaired cardiac contractile function. However, little is known about titin alternative splicing in response to external stimuli. Here, we reported the detailed mechanisms of titin alternative splicing in response to insulin. Insulin treatment in cultured neonatal rat cardiomyocytes (NRCMs) activated the PI3K-Akt-mTOR Kinase axis, leading to increased N2B expression in the presence of RBM20, but not in NRCMs in the absence of RBM20. By inhibiting this kinase axis with inhibitors, decreased N2B isoform was observed in NRCMs and also in diabetic rat model treated with streptozotocin, but not in NRCMs and diabetic rats in the absence of RBM20. In addition to the alteration of titin isoform ratios in response to insulin, we found that RBM20 expression was increased in NRCMs with insulin treatment, suggesting that RBM20 levels were also regulated by insulin-induced kinase axis. Further, knockdown of p70S6K1 with siRNA reduced both RBM20 and N2B levels, while knockdown of 4E-BP1 elevated expression levels of RBM20 and N2B. These findings reveal a major signal transduction pathway for insulin-induced titin alternative splicing, and place RBM20 in a central position in the pathway, which is consistent with the reputed role of RBM20 in titin alternative splicing. Findings from this study shed light on gene therapeutic strategies at the molecular level by correction of pre-mRNA mis-splicing.
RNA binding motif 20 (RBM20) regulates pre-mRNA splicing of over thirty genes, among which titin is a major target. With RBM20 expression, titin expresses a larger isoform at fetal stage to a smaller isoform at adult resulting from alternative splicing, while, without RBM20, titin expresses exclusively a larger isoform throughout all ages. In addition to splicing regulation, it is unknown whether RBM20 also regulates gene expression. In this study, we employed Rbm20 knockout rats to investigate gene expression profile using Affymetrix expression array. We compared wild type to Rbm20 knockout at day1, 20 and 49. Bioinformatics analysis showed RBM20 regulates fewer genes expression at younger age and more at older age and commonly expressed genes have the same trends. GSEA indicated up-regulated genes are associated with heart failure. We examined titin binding partners. All titin direct binding partners are up-regulated and their increased expression is associated with dilated cardiomyopathy. Particularly, we found that genes involving calcium handling and muscle contraction are changed by RBM20. Intracellular calcium level measurement with individual cardiomyocytes further confirmed that changes of these proteins impact calcium handling. Selected genes from titin binding partners and calcium handling were validated with QPCR and western blotting. These data demonstrate that RBM20 regulates gene splicing as well as gene expression. Altered gene expression by RBM20 influences protein-protein interaction, calcium releasing and thus muscle contraction. Our results first reported gene expression impacted by RBM20 with heart maturation, and provided new insights into the role of RBM20 in the progression of heart failure.
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