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Nature Reviews. Cardiology Jun 2022Variants in >12 genes encoding sarcomeric proteins can cause various cardiomyopathies. The two most common are hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) and dilated... (Review)
Review
Variants in >12 genes encoding sarcomeric proteins can cause various cardiomyopathies. The two most common are hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) and dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM). Current therapeutics do not target the root causes of these diseases, but attempt to prevent disease progression and/or to manage symptoms. Accordingly, novel approaches are being developed to treat the cardiac muscle dysfunction directly. Challenges to developing therapeutics for these diseases include the diverse mechanisms of pathogenesis, some of which are still being debated and defined. Four small molecules that modulate the myosin motor protein in the cardiac sarcomere have shown great promise in the settings of HCM and DCM, regardless of the underlying genetic pathogenesis, and similar approaches are being developed to target other components of the sarcomere. In the setting of HCM, mavacamten and aficamten bind to the myosin motor and decrease the ATPase activity of myosin. In the setting of DCM, omecamtiv mecarbil and danicamtiv increase myosin activity in cardiac muscle (but omecamtiv mecarbil decreases myosin activity in vitro). In this Review, we discuss the therapeutic strategies to alter sarcomere contractile activity and summarize the data indicating that targeting one protein in the sarcomere can be effective in treating patients with genetic variants in other sarcomeric proteins, as well as in patients with non-sarcomere-based disease.
Topics: Cardiomyopathies; Cardiomyopathy, Dilated; Cardiomyopathy, Hypertrophic; Humans; Mutation; Myocardium; Myosins; Sarcomeres
PubMed: 35304599
DOI: 10.1038/s41569-022-00682-0 -
International Journal of Molecular... Sep 2018Actin-myosin interactions play crucial roles in the generation of cellular force and movement. The molecular mechanism involves structural transitions at the interface... (Review)
Review
Actin-myosin interactions play crucial roles in the generation of cellular force and movement. The molecular mechanism involves structural transitions at the interface between actin and myosin's catalytic domain, and within myosin's light chain domain, which contains binding sites for essential (ELC) and regulatory light chains (RLC). High-resolution crystal structures of isolated actin and myosin, along with cryo-electron micrographs of actin-myosin complexes, have been used to construct detailed structural models for actin-myosin interactions. However, these methods are limited by disorder, particularly within the light chain domain, and they do not capture the dynamics within this complex under physiological conditions in solution. Here we highlight the contributions of site-directed fluorescent probes and time-resolved fluorescence resonance energy transfer (TR-FRET) in understanding the structural dynamics of the actin-myosin complex in solution. A donor fluorescent probe on actin and an acceptor fluorescent probe on myosin, together with high performance TR-FRET, directly resolves structural states in the bound actin-myosin complex during its interaction with adenosine triphosphate (ATP). Results from these studies have profound implications for understanding the contractile function of actomyosin and establish the feasibility for the discovery of allosteric modulators of the actin-myosin interaction, with the ultimate goal of developing therapies for muscle disorders.
Topics: Actins; Adenosine Triphosphate; Animals; Disease Susceptibility; Drug Discovery; Humans; Muscle, Skeletal; Mutation; Myocardium; Myosin Light Chains; Myosins; Protein Binding; Protein Isoforms; Structure-Activity Relationship
PubMed: 30189615
DOI: 10.3390/ijms19092628 -
International Journal of Molecular... Nov 2019Muscular contraction is a fundamental phenomenon in all animals; without it life as we know it would be impossible. The basic mechanism in muscle, including heart... (Review)
Review
Muscular contraction is a fundamental phenomenon in all animals; without it life as we know it would be impossible. The basic mechanism in muscle, including heart muscle, involves the interaction of the protein filaments myosin and actin. Motility in all cells is also partly based on similar interactions of actin filaments with non-muscle myosins. Early studies of muscle contraction have informed later studies of these cellular actin-myosin systems. In muscles, projections on the myosin filaments, the so-called myosin heads or cross-bridges, interact with the nearby actin filaments and, in a mechanism powered by ATP-hydrolysis, they move the actin filaments past them in a kind of cyclic rowing action to produce the macroscopic muscular movements of which we are all aware. In this special issue the papers and reviews address different aspects of the actin-myosin interaction in muscle as studied by a plethora of complementary techniques. The present overview provides a brief and elementary introduction to muscle structure and function and the techniques used to study it. It goes on to give more detailed descriptions of what is known about muscle components and the cross-bridge cycle using structural biology techniques, particularly protein crystallography, electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction. It then has a quick look at muscle mechanics and it summarises what can be learnt about how muscle works based on the other studies covered in the different papers in the special issue. A picture emerges of the main molecular steps involved in the force-producing process; steps that are also likely to be seen in non-muscle myosin interactions with cellular actin filaments. Finally, the remarkable advances made in studying the effects of mutations in the contractile assembly in causing specific muscle diseases, particularly those in heart muscle, are outlined and discussed.
Topics: Actins; Animals; Humans; Models, Biological; Muscle Contraction; Muscle, Striated; Muscles; Myosins; Protein Binding; Sarcomeres; Structure-Activity Relationship
PubMed: 31739584
DOI: 10.3390/ijms20225715 -
Science Translational Medicine Jan 2019The mechanisms by which truncating mutations in (encoding cardiac myosin-binding protein C; cMyBPC) or myosin missense mutations cause hypercontractility and poor...
The mechanisms by which truncating mutations in (encoding cardiac myosin-binding protein C; cMyBPC) or myosin missense mutations cause hypercontractility and poor relaxation in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) are incompletely understood. Using genetic and biochemical approaches, we explored how depletion of cMyBPC altered sarcomere function. We demonstrated that stepwise loss of cMyBPC resulted in reciprocal augmentation of myosin contractility. Direct attenuation of myosin function, via a damaging missense variant (F764L) that causes dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM), normalized the increased contractility from cMyBPC depletion. Depletion of cMyBPC also altered dynamic myosin conformations during relaxation, enhancing the myosin state that enables ATP hydrolysis and thin filament interactions while reducing the super relaxed conformation associated with energy conservation. MYK-461, a pharmacologic inhibitor of myosin ATPase, rescued relaxation deficits and restored normal contractility in mouse and human cardiomyocytes with mutations. These data define dosage-dependent effects of cMyBPC on myosin that occur across the cardiac cycle as the pathophysiologic mechanisms by which truncations cause HCM. Therapeutic strategies to attenuate cMyBPC activity may rescue depressed cardiac contractility in patients with DCM, whereas inhibiting myosin by MYK-461 should benefit the substantial proportion of patients with HCM with mutations.
Topics: Adenosine Triphosphate; Animals; Cardiomyopathy, Hypertrophic; Carrier Proteins; Disease Models, Animal; Haploinsufficiency; Humans; Mice; Mutation; Myocardial Contraction; Myocardium; Myocytes, Cardiac; Myosins; Phenotype; ortho-Aminobenzoates
PubMed: 30674652
DOI: 10.1126/scitranslmed.aat1199 -
The Journal of General Physiology Nov 2023JGP study (In this issue, Osten et al. https://doi.org/10.1085/jgp.202313377) suggests that, by altering mechanosensitive signaling pathways, replating stem cell-derived...
JGP study (In this issue, Osten et al. https://doi.org/10.1085/jgp.202313377) suggests that, by altering mechanosensitive signaling pathways, replating stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes changes myosin expression and contractile function.
Topics: Muscle Contraction; Myosins; Signal Transduction
PubMed: 37847309
DOI: 10.1085/jgp.202313491 -
Circulation Mar 2020Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) is caused by pathogenic variants in sarcomere protein genes that evoke hypercontractility, poor relaxation, and increased energy...
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 proportion of myosins in the super relaxed state (SRX) conformation or the disordered relaxed state (DRX) conformation 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 of unknown clinical significance that were identified in patients with HCM, predicted functional consequences and associations with heart failure and arrhythmias.
RESULTS
Myosins undergo physiological shifts between the SRX conformation that maximizes energy conservation and the DRX conformation that enables cross-bridge formation with greater ATP consumption. Systemic hemodynamic requirements, pharmacological modulators of myosin, and pathogenic myosin missense mutations influenced the proportions of these conformations. Hibernation increased the proportion of myosins in the SRX conformation, whereas pathogenic variants destabilized these and increased the proportion of myosins in the DRX conformation, which enhanced cardiomyocyte contractility, but impaired relaxation and evoked hypertrophic remodeling with increased energetic stress. Using structural locations to stratify variants of unknown clinical significance, we showed that the variants that destabilized myosin conformations were associated with higher rates of heart failure and arrhythmias in patients with HCM.
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 patients with HCM. Therapeutic restabilization corrects cellular contractile and metabolic phenotypes and may limit these adverse clinical outcomes in patients with HCM.
Topics: Adenosine Triphosphatases; Animals; Cardiac Myosins; Cardiomyopathy, Hypertrophic; Cells, Cultured; Energy Metabolism; Humans; Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells; Mice; Molecular Dynamics Simulation; Muscle Relaxation; Mutation, Missense; Myocardial Contraction; Myocytes, Cardiac; Myosin Heavy Chains; Protein Conformation; Sarcomeres
PubMed: 31983222
DOI: 10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.119.042339 -
Experimental Cell Research May 2015Myosin-X (Myo10) is a motor protein best known for its role in filopodia formation. New research implicates Myo10 in a number of disease states including cancer... (Review)
Review
Myosin-X (Myo10) is a motor protein best known for its role in filopodia formation. New research implicates Myo10 in a number of disease states including cancer metastasis and pathogen infection. This review focuses on these developments with emphasis on the emerging roles of Myo10 in formation of cancer cell protrusions and metastasis. A number of aggressive cancers show high levels of Myo10 expression and knockdown of Myo10 has been shown to dramatically limit cancer cell motility in 2D and 3D systems. Myo10 knockdown also limits spread of intracellular pathogens marburgvirus and Shigella flexneri. Consideration is given to how these properties might arise and potential paths of future research.
Topics: Humans; Myosins; Neoplasms
PubMed: 25819274
DOI: 10.1016/j.yexcr.2015.03.014 -
Journal of Molecular Biology May 2016Members of the myosin superfamily are actin-based molecular motors that are indispensable for cellular homeostasis. The vast functional and structural diversity of... (Review)
Review
Members of the myosin superfamily are actin-based molecular motors that are indispensable for cellular homeostasis. The vast functional and structural diversity of myosins accounts for the variety and complexity of the underlying allosteric regulatory mechanisms that determine the activation or inhibition of myosin motor activity and enable precise timing and spatial aspects of myosin function at the cellular level. This review focuses on the molecular basis of posttranslational regulation of eukaryotic myosins from different classes across species by allosteric intrinsic and extrinsic effectors. First, we highlight the impact of heavy and light chain phosphorylation. Second, we outline intramolecular regulatory mechanisms such as autoinhibition and subsequent activation. Third, we discuss diverse extramolecular allosteric mechanisms ranging from actin-linked regulatory mechanisms to myosin:cargo interactions. At last, we briefly outline the allosteric regulation of myosins with synthetic compounds.
Topics: Allosteric Regulation; Molecular Motor Proteins; Myosins; Phosphorylation; Protein Processing, Post-Translational
PubMed: 26827725
DOI: 10.1016/j.jmb.2016.01.022 -
Journal of Applied Physiology... Jan 2024Skeletal muscle is a highly complex tissue that is studied by scientists from a wide spectrum of disciplines, including motor control, biomechanics, exercise science,... (Review)
Review
Skeletal muscle is a highly complex tissue that is studied by scientists from a wide spectrum of disciplines, including motor control, biomechanics, exercise science, physiology, cell biology, genetics, regenerative medicine, orthopedics, and engineering. Although this diversity in perspectives has led to many important discoveries, historically, there has been limited overlap in discussions across fields. This has led to misconceptions and oversimplifications about muscle biology that can create confusion and potentially slow scientific progress across fields. The purpose of this synthesis paper is to bring together research perspectives across multiple muscle fields to identify common assumptions related to muscle fiber type that are points of concern to clarify. These assumptions include ) classification by myosin isoform and fiber oxidative capacity is equivalent, ) fiber cross-sectional area (CSA) is a surrogate marker for myosin isoform or oxidative capacity, and ) muscle force-generating capacity can be inferred from myosin isoform. We address these three fiber-type traps and provide some context for how these misunderstandings can and do impact experimental design, computational modeling, and interpretations of findings, from the perspective of a range of fields. We stress the dangers of generalizing findings about "muscle fiber types" among muscles or across species or sex, and we note the importance for precise use of common terminology across the muscle fields.
Topics: Biomechanical Phenomena; Muscle Fibers, Skeletal; Muscle, Skeletal; Myosins; Protein Isoforms; Biology; Myosin Heavy Chains
PubMed: 37994416
DOI: 10.1152/japplphysiol.00337.2023 -
Current Opinion in Structural Biology Apr 2021Myosin VI is a minus end-directed actin motor protein that fulfils several roles in the cell. The interaction of myosin VI with its cellular cargoes is dictated by the... (Review)
Review
Myosin VI is a minus end-directed actin motor protein that fulfils several roles in the cell. The interaction of myosin VI with its cellular cargoes is dictated by the presence of binding domains at the C-terminus of the protein. In this review, we describe how alternative splicing and structural and conformational changes modulate the plasticity of the myosin VI interactome. Recent findings highlight how the various partners can cooperate or compete for binding to allow a precise temporal and spatial regulation of myosin VI recruitment to different cellular compartments, where its motor or anchor function is needed.
Topics: Actins; Myosin Heavy Chains; Myosins
PubMed: 33053464
DOI: 10.1016/j.sbi.2020.09.005