ATF6 protects against protein misfolding during cardiac hypertrophy.

Cardiomyocytes activate the unfolded protein response (UPR) transcription factor ATF6 during pressure overload-induced hypertrophic growth. The UPR is thought to increase ER protein folding capacity and maintain proteostasis. ATF6 deficiency during pressure overload leads to heart failure, suggesting that ATF6 protects against myocardial dysfunction by preventing protein misfolding.

Optimization of Large-Scale Adeno-Associated Virus (AAV) Production.

Genetic manipulation in vivo is a critical method for mechanistically understanding gene function in disease and physiological processes. To facilitate this, embryonic transgenesis in popular animal models like mice has been developed. Compared to the longer, expensive methods of transgenesis, viral vectors, such as adeno-associated virus (AAV), have grown increasingly in popularity due to their relatively low cost and ease of production, translating to an overall greater versatility as a biological tool.

Hydrogen sulfide: the gas that fuels longevity.

The molecular determinants of lifespan can be examined in animal models with the long-term objective of applying what is learned to the development of strategies to enhance longevity in humans. Here, we comment on a recent publication examining the molecular mechanisms that determine lifespan in worms, (), where it was shown that inhibiting protein synthesis increased levels of the transcription factor, ATF4. Gene expression analyses showed that ATF4 increased the expression of genes responsible for the formation of the gas, hydrogen sulfide (HS).

Dietary choline intake is necessary to prevent systems-wide organ pathology and reduce Alzheimer's disease hallmarks.

There is an urgent need to identify modifiable environmental risk factors that reduce the incidence of Alzheimer's disease (AD). The B-like vitamin choline plays key roles in body- and brain-related functions. Choline produced endogenously by the phosphatidylethanolamine N-methyltransferase protein in the liver is not sufficient for adequate physiological functions, necessitating daily dietary intake.

Noncanonical Form of ERAD Regulates Cardiac Hypertrophy.

Background: Cardiac hypertrophy increases demands on protein folding, which causes an accumulation of misfolded proteins in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). These misfolded proteins can be removed by the adaptive retrotranslocation, polyubiquitylation, and a proteasome-mediated degradation process, ER-associated degradation (ERAD), which, as a biological process and rate, has not been studied in vivo. To investigate a role for ERAD in a pathophysiological model, we examined the function of the functional initiator of ERAD, valosin-containing protein-interacting membrane protein (VIMP), positing that VIMP would be adaptive in pathological cardiac hypertrophy in mice.

Design and Production of Heart Chamber-Specific AAV9 Vectors.

Adeno-associated virus serotype 9 (AAV9) is often used in heart research involving gene delivery due to its cardiotropism, high transduction efficiency, and little to no pathogenicity, making it highly applicable for gene manipulation, in vivo. However, current AAV9 technology is limited by the lack of strains that can selectively express and elucidate gene function in an atrial- and ventricular-specific manner. In fact, study of gene function in cardiac atria has been limited due to the lack of an appropriate tool to study atrial gene expression in vivo, hindering progress in the study of atrial-specific diseases such as atrial fibrillation, the most common cardiac arrhythmia in the USA.

The peroxisomal enzyme, FAR1, is induced during ER stress in an ATF6-dependent manner in cardiac myocytes.

Although peroxisomes have been extensively studied in other cell types, their presence and function have gone virtually unexamined in cardiac myocytes. Here, in neonatal rat ventricular myocytes (NRVM) we showed that several known peroxisomal proteins co-localize to punctate structures with a morphology typical of peroxisomes. Surprisingly, we found that the peroxisomal protein, fatty acyl-CoA reductase 1 (FAR1), was upregulated by pharmacological and pathophysiological ER stress induced by tunicamycin (TM) and simulated ischemia-reperfusion (sI/R), respectively.

Simultaneous Isolation and Culture of Atrial Myocytes, Ventricular Myocytes, and Non-Myocytes from an Adult Mouse Heart.

The isolation and culturing of cardiac myocytes from mice has been essential for furthering the understanding of cardiac physiology and pathophysiology. While isolating myocytes from neonatal mouse hearts is relatively straightforward, myocytes from the adult murine heart are preferred. This is because compared to neonatal cells, adult myocytes more accurately recapitulate cell function as it occurs in the adult heart in vivo.

Proteomic analysis of the cardiac myocyte secretome reveals extracellular protective functions for the ER stress response.

The effects of ER stress on protein secretion by cardiac myocytes are not well understood. In this study, the ER stressor thapsigargin (TG), which depletes ER calcium, induced death of cultured neonatal rat ventricular myocytes (NRVMs) in high media volume but fostered protection in low media volume. In contrast, another ER stressor, tunicamycin (TM), a protein glycosylation inhibitor, induced NRVM death in all media volumes, suggesting that protective proteins were secreted in response to TG but not TM.

Mesencephalic astrocyte-derived neurotrophic factor is an ER-resident chaperone that protects against reductive stress in the heart.

We have previously demonstrated that ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) impairs endoplasmic reticulum (ER)-based protein folding in the heart and thereby activates an unfolded protein response sensor and effector, activated transcription factor 6α (ATF6). ATF6 then induces mesencephalic astrocyte-derived neurotrophic factor (MANF), an ER-resident protein with no known structural homologs and unclear ER function. To determine MANF's function in the heart , here we developed a cardiomyocyte-specific MANF-knockdown mouse model.

ATF6 as a Nodal Regulator of Proteostasis in the Heart.

Proteostasis encompasses a homeostatic cellular network in all cells that maintains the integrity of the proteome, which is critical for optimal cellular function. The components of the proteostasis network include protein synthesis, folding, trafficking, and degradation. Cardiac myocytes have a specialized endoplasmic reticulum (ER) called the sarcoplasmic reticulum that is well known for its role in contractile calcium handling.

Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS)-Activatable Prodrug for Selective Activation of ATF6 after Ischemia/Reperfusion Injury.

We describe here the design, synthesis, and biological evaluation of a reactive oxygen species (ROS)-activatable prodrug for the selective delivery of , a small molecule ATF6 activator, for ischemia/reperfusion injury. ROS-activatable prodrug and a negative control unable to release free drug were synthesized and examined for peroxide-mediated activation. Prodrug blocks activity of by its inability to undergo metabolic oxidation by ER-resident cytochrome P450 enzymes such as Cyp1A2, probed directly here for the first time.

Designing Novel Therapies to Mend Broken Hearts: ATF6 and Cardiac Proteostasis.

The heart exhibits incredible plasticity in response to both environmental and genetic alterations that affect workload. Over the course of development, or in response to physiological or pathological stimuli, the heart responds to fluctuations in workload by hypertrophic growth primarily by individual cardiac myocytes growing in size. Cardiac hypertrophy is associated with an increase in protein synthesis, which must coordinate with protein folding and degradation to allow for homeostatic growth without affecting the functional integrity of cardiac myocytes (i.

The ER Unfolded Protein Response Effector, ATF6, Reduces Cardiac Fibrosis and Decreases Activation of Cardiac Fibroblasts.

Activating transcription factor-6 α (ATF6) is one of the three main sensors and effectors of the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress response and, as such, it is critical for protecting the heart and other tissues from a variety of environmental insults and disease states. In the heart, ATF6 has been shown to protect cardiac myocytes. However, its roles in other cell types in the heart are unknown.

Sledgehammer to Scalpel: Broad Challenges to the Heart and Other Tissues Yield Specific Cellular Responses via Transcriptional Regulation of the ER-Stress Master Regulator ATF6α.

There are more than 2000 transcription factors in eukaryotes, many of which are subject to complex mechanisms fine-tuning their activity and their transcriptional programs to meet the vast array of conditions under which cells must adapt to thrive and survive. For example, conditions that impair protein folding in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER), sometimes called ER stress, elicit the relocation of the ER-transmembrane protein, activating transcription factor 6α (ATF6α), to the Golgi, where it is proteolytically cleaved. This generates a fragment of ATF6α that translocates to the nucleus, where it regulates numerous genes that restore ER protein-folding capacity but is degraded soon after.

Integrating ER and Mitochondrial Proteostasis in the Healthy and Diseased Heart.

The integrity of the proteome in cardiac myocytes is critical for robust heart function. Proteome integrity in all cells is managed by protein homeostasis or proteostasis, which encompasses processes that maintain the balance of protein synthesis, folding, and degradation in ways that allow cells to adapt to conditions that present a potential challenge to viability (1). While there are processes in various cellular locations in cardiac myocytes that contribute to proteostasis, those in the cytosol, mitochondria and endoplasmic reticulum (ER) have dominant roles in maintaining cardiac contractile function.

Pharmacologic ATF6 activation confers global protection in widespread disease models by reprograming cellular proteostasis.

Pharmacologic activation of stress-responsive signaling pathways provides a promising approach for ameliorating imbalances in proteostasis associated with diverse diseases. However, this approach has not been employed in vivo. Here we show, using a mouse model of myocardial ischemia/reperfusion, that selective pharmacologic activation of the ATF6 arm of the unfolded protein response (UPR) during reperfusion, a typical clinical intervention point after myocardial infarction, transcriptionally reprograms proteostasis, ameliorates damage and preserves heart function.

ATF6 Regulates Cardiac Hypertrophy by Transcriptional Induction of the mTORC1 Activator, Rheb.

Rationale: Endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress dysregulates ER proteostasis, which activates the transcription factor, ATF6 (activating transcription factor 6α), an inducer of genes that enhance protein folding and restore ER proteostasis. Because of increased protein synthesis, it is possible that protein folding and ER proteostasis are challenged during cardiac myocyte growth. However, it is not known whether ATF6 is activated, and if so, what its function is during hypertrophic growth of cardiac myocytes.

Pharmacologic ATF6 activating compounds are metabolically activated to selectively modify endoplasmic reticulum proteins.

Pharmacologic arm-selective unfolded protein response (UPR) signaling pathway activation is emerging as a promising strategy to ameliorate imbalances in endoplasmic reticulum (ER) proteostasis implicated in diverse diseases. The small molecule (2-hydroxy-5-methylphenyl)-3-phenylpropanamide () was previously identified (Plate et al., 2016) to preferentially activate the ATF6 arm of the UPR, promoting protective remodeling of the ER proteostasis network.

CaMKIIδ subtypes differentially regulate infarct formation following ex vivo myocardial ischemia/reperfusion through NF-κB and TNF-α.

Deletion of Ca/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II delta (CaMKIIδ) has been shown to protect against in vivo ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury. It remains unclear which CaMKIIδ isoforms and downstream mechanisms are responsible for the salutary effects of CaMKIIδ gene deletion. In this study we sought to compare the roles of the CaMKIIδ and CaMKIIδ subtypes and the mechanisms by which they contribute to ex vivo I/R damage.

ATF6 Decreases Myocardial Ischemia/Reperfusion Damage and Links ER Stress and Oxidative Stress Signaling Pathways in the Heart.

Rationale: Endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress causes the accumulation of misfolded proteins in the ER, activating the transcription factor, ATF6 (activating transcription factor 6 alpha), which induces ER stress response genes. Myocardial ischemia induces the ER stress response; however, neither the function of this response nor whether it is mediated by ATF6 is known.

Objective: Here, we examined the effects of blocking the ATF6-mediated ER stress response on ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) in cardiac myocytes and mouse hearts.