Tissue-specific Inhibition of Apolipoprotein B mRNA Editing in the Liver by Adenovirus-mediated Transfer of a Dominant Negative Mutant APOBEC-1 Leads to Increased Low Density Lipoprotein in Mice

Abstract

APOBEC-1 is a catalytic subunit of an apolipoprotein B (apoB) mRNA editing enzyme complex. In humans it is expressed only in the intestine, whereas in mice it is expressed in both the liver and intestine. APOBEC-1 exists as a spontaneous homodimer (Lau, P. P., Zhu, H.-J., Baldini, A., Charnsangavej, C., and Chan, L. (1994) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A. 91, 8522-8526). We tested the editing activity and dimerization potential of three different mouse APOBEC-1 mutants using in vitro editing activity assay and immunoprecipitation in the presence of epitope-tagged APOBEC-1. One catalytically inactive mutant, mu1 (H61K/C93S/C96S), that retains its capacity to dimerize with wild-type APOBEC-1 was found to inhibit the editing activity of the latter and was thus a dominant negative mutant. Two other inactive mutants that dimerized poorly with APOBEC-1 failed to inhibit its activity. Intravenous injection of a mu1 adenovirus, Admu1, in C57BL/6J mice in vivo resulted in liver-specific expression of mu1 mRNA. On days 4 and 9 after virus injection, endogenous hepatic apoB mRNA editing was 23.3 ؎ 5.0 and 36.8 ؎ 5.7%, respectively, compared with 65.3 ؎ 11 and 71.3 ؎ 5.2%, respectively, for luciferase adenovirus-treated animals. Plasma apoB-100 accounted for 95 and 93% of total plasma apoB in Admu1 animals on days 4 and 9, respectively, compared with 78 and 72% in luciferase adenovirus animals. Plasma cholesterol on day 9 was 98 ؎ 17 mg/dl in the mu1-treated animals, substantially higher than phosphate-buffered saline-treated (57 ؎ 9 mg/dl) or luciferase-treated (71 ؎ 12 mg/dl) controls. Fast protein liquid chromatography analysis of mouse plasma showed that the intermediate density/low density lipoprotein fractions in the animals treated with the dominant negative mutant adenovirus were much higher than those in controls. We conclude that active APOBEC-1 functions as a dimer and its activity is inhibited by a dominant negative mutant. Furthermore, apoB mRNA editing determines the availability of apoB-100, which in turn limits the amount of intermediate density/low density lipoprotein that can be formed in mice. Liver-specific inhibition of apoB mRNA editing is an important component of any strategy to enhance the value of mice as a model for human lipoprotein metabolism.The mouse is a useful animal model for lipoprotein metabolism and atherosclerosis (1, 2). Its value as a model for human disease, however, is limited by the fact that there is a substantial difference in lipoprotein metabolism between the two species. One major difference is the presence of high levels of apolipoprotein B (apoB) 1 mRNA editing in the liver in mice but not in humans.ApoB mRNA editing is a process by which apoB-100 mRNA is converted to apoB-48 mRNA (3, 4) (reviewed in Ref. 5). It involves the conversion of the first base of the codon CAA, encoding glutamine 2153 in apoB-100, to UAA, a stop codon, in apoB-48 mRNA. In humans, editing occurs exclusively in the small intestine but not in the liver. Therefore, the human liver produces apoB-100 and ...

The structure of a yeast RNA-editing deaminase provides insight into the fold and function of activation-induced deaminase and APOBEC-1

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APOBEC3G Subunits Self-associate via the C-terminal Deaminase Domain

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