Biology subjects

Gams, A.

Publications and source records attributed to Gams, A..

4 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2020

Evidence of Superior and Inferior Sinoatrial Nodes in the Mammalian Heart

The initiation of rhythmic heartbeat is the earliest manifestation of new life after conception. A normal heartbeat originates as an action potential in a group of pacemaker cells of the sinoatrial node (SAN)1. Pacemaker cells are evident since early embryogenesis when the entire sinus venosus exhibits electric automaticity and possesses specific gene expression profile distinct from that of working myocardium2,3. During the subsequent looping and ballooning stages of cardiac development, pacemaker cells eventually localize into SAN near the superior vena cava (SVC) when the two horns of the sinus venosus coil in formation of the atria2. The heart rate and anatomical site of origin of pacemaker activity dynamically change in response to various physiological input such as autonomic stimuli and pharmacological interventions4. However, the mechanisms of dominant pacemaker shift are not well understood. Here, we present functional and molecular evidence of two competing right atrial pacemakers localized near the SVC and the inferior vena cava (IVC), which we call the superior and inferior SANs: sSAN and iSAN. Using ex vivo optical mapping techniques and RNA sequencing of rat and human hearts, we demonstrate that sSAN and iSAN preferentially control the fast and slow heart rates during sympathetic or parasympathetic stimulation, respectively. RNAseq confirmed unique transcriptional profiles of sSAN and iSAN, which differs from both atria and ventricles. We speculate that the anatomical locations of sSAN and iSAN are a result of the way the two horns of the sinus venosus twist into a mature chambered heart. We anticipate these findings would clarify previously observed migration of dominant pacemaker and corresponding changes in P-wave morphology in many species. Furthermore, we expect these findings will shed light onto pathogenesis of aberrant pacemakers responsible for life-threatening arrhythmias near orifices of other major vessels: SVC and IVC, coronary sinus, pulmonary veins, aorta and the right ventricular outflow tract.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.View Full Text

physiology↗

bioRxiv2020

Human library of cardiac promoters and enhancers

Genome regulatory elements play a critical role during cardiac development and maintenance of normal physiological homeostasis, and genome-wide association studies identified a large number of SNPs associated with cardiovascular diseases localized in intergenic zones. We used cap analysis of gene expression (CAGE) to identify transcription start sites (TSS) with one nucleotide resolution that effectively maps genome regulatory elements in a representative collection of human heart tissues. Here we present a comprehensive and fully annotated CAGE atlas of human promoters and enhancers from four chambers of the non-diseased human donor hearts, including both atria and ventricles. We have identified 10,528 novel regulatory elements, where 2,750 are classified as TSS and 4,258 novel enhancers, which were validated with ChIP-seq libraries and motif enrichment analysis. We found that heart-region specific expression patterns are primarily based on the alternative promoter and specific enhancer activity. Our study significantly increased evidence of the association of regulatory elements-located variants with heart morphology and pathologies. The precise location of cardiac disease-related SNPs within the regulatory regions and their correlation with a specific cell type offers a new understanding of genetic heart diseases.

genomics↗

bioRxiv2020

Heart Slice Culture System Reliably Demonstrates Clinical Drug-Related Cardiotoxicity

The limited availability of human heart tissue and its complex cell composition are major limiting factors for reliable testing drug efficacy, toxicity and understanding mechanism. Recently, we developed a functional human and pig heart slice biomimetic culture system that fully preserves the viability and functionality of 300 {micro}m heart slices for 6 days. Here, we tested the reliability of this culture system in delineating the mechanisms of known anti-cancer drugs that cause cardiomyopathy. We tested three anti-cancer drugs (doxorubicin, trastuzumab, and sunitinib) associated with different mechanisms leading to cardiotoxicity at three concentrations and assessed the effect of these drugs on heart slice viability, structure, function and transcriptome. Slices incubated with any of these drugs for 48 h showed significant loss in viability, cardiomyocyte structure and functionality. Mechanistically, RNA sequencing demonstrated a significant downregulation of cardiac genes and upregulation of oxidative response in doxorubicin-treated tissues. Trastuzumab treatment caused major downregulation in cardiac muscle contraction-related genes, consistent with its clinically known direct effect on cardiomyocytes. Interestingly, sunitinib treatment resulted in significant downregulation of angiogenesis-related genes in line with its mechanism of action. Heart slices are not only able to demonstrate the expected toxicity of doxorubicin and trastuzumab similar to hiPS-derived-cardiomyocytes; they are superior in detecting sunitinib cardiotoxicity phenotypes and mechanism in the clinically relevant concentration range, 100 nM - 1 {micro}M. These results indicate that heart slice tissue culture models have the potential to become a reliable platform for testing drug toxicity and mechanism of action.

cell biology↗

bioRxiv2020

Mitochondrial Enzymes of the Urea Cycle Cluster at the Inner Mitochondrial Membrane

Mitochondrial enzymes involved in energy transformation are organized into multiprotein complexes that channel the reaction intermediates for efficient ATP production. Three of the mammalian urea cycle enzymes: N-acetylglutamate synthase (NAGS), carbamylphosphate synthetase 1 (CPS1), and ornithine transcarbamylase (OTC) reside in the mitochondria. Urea cycle is required to convert ammonia into urea and protect the brain from ammonia toxicity. Urea cycle intermediates are tightly channeled in and out of mitochondria, indicating that efficient activity of these enzymes relies upon their coordinated interaction with each other perhaps in a multiprotein complex. This view is supported by mutations in surface residues of the urea cycle proteins that impair urea genesis in the patients but do not affect protein stability or catalytic activity. Further, we find one third of the NAGS, CPS1 and OTC proteins in liver mitochondria can associate with the inner mitochondrial membrane (IMM), and co-immunoprecipitate. Our in silico analysis of vertebrate NAGS proteins, the least abundant of the urea cycle enzymes, identified a region we call variable segment present only in the mammalian NAGS protein. We experimentally confirmed that NAGS variable segment mediates the interaction of NAGS with CPS1. Use of Gated-Stimulation Emission Depletion (gSTED) super resolution microscopy showed that in situ, NAGS, CPS1 and OTC are organized into clusters. These results are consistent with mitochondrial urea cycle proteins forming a cluster instead of functioning either independently or in a rigid multienzyme complex.

biochemistry↗