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Dynamic Subunit Stoichiometry Confers a Progressive Continuum of Pharmacological Sensitivity by KCNQ Potassium Channels

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Dynamic Subunit Stoichiometry Confers a Progressive Continuum of Pharmacological Sensitivity by KCNQ Potassium Channels Dynamic subunit stoichiometry confers a progressive continuum of pharmacological sensitivity by KCNQ potassium channels Haibo Yua,b, Zhihong Lina,b,1, Margrith E. Mattmannc,d,e, Beiyan Zoua,b, Cecile Terrenoiref, Hongkang Zhanga,b, Meng Wua,b,2, Owen B. McManusa,b, Robert S. Kassf, Craig W. Lindsleyc,d,e,g, Corey R. Hopkinsc,d,e,g,3, and Min Lia,b,3 aThe Solomon H. Snyder Department of Neuroscience, High Throughput Biology Center and bJohns Hopkins Ion Channel Center, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21205; cDepartment of Pharmacology and dVanderbilt Center for Neuroscience Drug Discovery, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN 37232; gDepartment of Chemistry and eVanderbilt Specialized Chemistry Center for Probe Development, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN 37232; and fDepartment of Pharmacology, Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York, NY 10032 Edited by Richard W. Aldrich, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, and approved April 3, 2013 (received for review January 14, 2013) Voltage-gated KCNQ1 (Kv7.1) potassium channels are expressed represents an effective strategy to understand the physiological abundantly in heart but they are also found in multiple other tissues. roles of this current and may form a basis for development of Differential coassembly with single transmembrane KCNE beta sub- therapeutics for specific cardiac arrhythmias. units in different cell types gives rise to a variety of biophysical Several pharmacological gating modifiers of KCNQ1 have been properties, hence endowing distinct physiological roles for KCNQ1– reported. These include R-L3 (9, 10), zinc pyrithione (ZnPy) (11) KCNEx complexes. Mutations in either KCNQ1 or KCNE1 genes result and phenylboronic acid (PBA) (12). However, their specificity in diseases in brain, heart, and the respiratory system. In addition to for KCNQ1 versus KCNQ1–KCNE complexes remains largely fi complexities arising from existence of ve KCNE subunits, KCNE1 to undetermined. R-L3 activates IKs and shortens action potential KCNE5, recent studies in heterologous systems suggest unorthodox duration in guinea pig cardiac myocytes but did not give consis- stoichiometric dynamics in subunit assembly is dependent on KCNE tent effects on channels formed by coassembly of KCNQ1 and expression levels. The resultant KCNQ1–KCNE channel complexes KCNE1 subunits in a heterologous system (9). ZnPy potentiates may have a range of zero to two or even up to four KCNE subunits KCNQ1 currents but coexpression with KCNE1 ablates this effect PHARMACOLOGY fi coassembling per KCNQ1 tetramer. These ndings underscore the (11). PBA augments KCNQ1–KCNE1 complexes at millimolar need to assess the selectivity of small-molecule KCNQ1 modulators concentrations with very slow on-rate and off-rate and may act on these different assemblies. Here we report a unique small-molecule through covalent interactions (12). gating modulator, ML277, that potentiates both homomultimeric Several studies have suggested that KCNQ1 exhibits flexible KCNQ1 channels and unsaturated heteromultimeric (KCNQ1)4(KCNE1)n stoichiometry with KCNE1 varying from one to four subunits per (n < 4) channels. Progressive increase of KCNE1 or KCNE3 expression fi KCNQ1 tetramer, depending on the relative expression levels of the reduces ef cacy of ML277 and eventually abolishes ML277-mediated two genes (13–18). More recent experiments with cardiomyocytes augmentation. In cardiomyocytes, the slowly activating delayed recti- differentiated from human stem cells or from induced pluripotent fier potassium current, or I , is believed to be a heteromultimeric com- Ks stem cells have shown that the voltage-dependence properties of I bination of KCNQ1 and KCNE1, but it is not entirely clear whether I is Ks Ks fall between KCNQ1 homomultimers and heteromultimeric com- mediated by KCNE-saturated KCNQ1 channels or by channels with plexes with saturated KCNE1 levels, further suggesting that I intermediate stoichiometries. We found ML277 effectively augments Ks results from coassembled channels with KCNQ1/KCNE1 stoichi- IKs current of cultured human cardiomyocytes and shortens action potential duration. These data indicate that unsaturated heteromulti- ometry other than a uniform 4:4 (19, 20). The flexible stoichiometry of KCNQ1–KCNE channel com- meric (KCNQ1)4(KCNE1)n channels are present as components of IKs and are pharmacologically distinct from KCNE-saturated KCNQ1– plexes provides a rationale to examine the roles of KCNE subunits KCNE1 channels. on channel properties and sensitivity to small-molecule modu- lators. In this study, we used a potent KCNQ1 modulator, ML277 cardiac physiology | drug | long QT | pharmacology (21), to examine how differential coassembly with KCNE1 modu- lates the pharmacological properties of KCNQ1–KCNE1 com- plexes. By testing (KCNQ1) (KCNE1) channels in a heterologous oltage-gated KCNQ1 (Kv7.1) potassium channels are ex- 4 n Vpressed in cardiac tissue and other nonexcitatory tissues in- cluding peripheral epithelial, pancreatic, smooth muscle cells (1, 2), α Author contributions: H.Y. and M.L. designed research; H.Y., Z.L., B.Z., and M.W. per- and central nervous system (3). Four identical -subunits (KCNQ1) formed research; M.E.M., C.T., R.S.K., C.W.L., and C.R.H. contributed new reagents/ana- form functional channels; however, when coassembled with auxil- lytic tools; H.Y., B.Z., H.Z., M.W., and O.B.M. analyzed data; and H.Y., C.W.L., and M.L. iary β-subunits (KCNE1), the resultant complex induces a current wrote the paper. The authors declare no conflict of interest. with biophysical properties similar to cardiac IKs, a slow component of the delayed rectifier current (4, 5). IKs is an important compo- This article is a PNAS Direct Submission. nent in the repolarizing phase of cardiac action potential. Ap- Freely available online through the PNAS open access option. proximately 50% of long QT patients harbor mutations in either Data deposition: The assays reported in this paper have been deposited in PubChem, KCNQ1 or KCNE1 genes (6). These patients have a characteristic http://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov (Bioassay Identifier 2699). lengthening of the QT interval in the electrocardiogram that may 1Present address: Department of Pharmacology, Carver College of Medicine, University of be caused by delayed cardiac repolarization during action potential Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52242. (7). More than 300 mutations of KCNQ1 have been annotated in 2Present address: High Throughput Screening Facility, Department of Biochemistry, Carver College of Medicine and Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Experimen- patients and a vast majority of the described mutations are linked tal Therapeutics, College of Pharmacy, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52242. to long QT syndrome (8). Loss-of-function mutations of KCNQ1 3 To whom correspondence may be addressed. E-mail: [email protected] or corey.r.hopkins@ (LQT1) can result in QT-interval prolongation and enhanced vanderbilt.edu. susceptibility to ventricular tachyarrhythmia, notably torsade de This article contains supporting information online at www.pnas.org/lookup/suppl/doi:10. pointes. Therefore, pharmacological augmentation of IKs current 1073/pnas.1300684110/-/DCSupplemental. www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1300684110 PNAS Early Edition | 1of6 Downloaded by guest on October 4, 2021 expression system and comparing these results with IKs currents in differentiated human cardiomyocytes, we identified differential pharmacological sensitivity of KCNQ1–KCNE1 complexes at dif- ferent KCNE1 expression levels. The resultant experimental data provided evidence to interpret pharmacological modulation of IKs currents by small molecules. Results Characterization of ML277 Modulation. ML277 was identified as a KCNQ1 activator in a high-throughput screen for KCNQ1 po- tassium channel modulators using the NIH Molecular Libraries Small Molecule Repository compound collection (21). ML277 stereo-selectively activates KCNQ1 channels with EC50 at sub- micromolar range. The compound is highly selective against other KCNQ channels by as much as 100-fold over KCNQ2 and KCNQ4 potassium channels (21) and against other heart ion channels in- cluding the human ether-a-go-go related gene (hERG), Nav1.5, and Cav1.2 (Fig. S1). Fig. 2. Effects of ML277 on inactivation kinetics of KCNQ1. (A) Represen- To study the mechanism for the potentiating effects of ML277, tative tail current traces to analyze KCNQ1 inactivation kinetics in the ab- voltage-dependent channel activation was examined using a CHO sence and presence of ML277 using the protocol shown (Inset). Tail currents cell line expressing human KCNQ1 channels in the absence or were recorded by repolarizing the membrane potential to −120 mV after presence of ML277 (Fig. 1A) by manual patch clamp. At the a series of 2-s depolarizing pulses from −70 mV to +50 mV in 10-mV incre- holding potential of −80 mV, 0.3 μM ML277 induced a rapid in- ments. (B) Tail currents measured at −120 mV after a prepulse to −10, +20 crease of KCNQ1 currents elicited by membrane depolarization. and +50 mV. Tail currents were fitted with a single-exponential function The effect attained a maximal level after ML277 was applied for (dashed line) to the later phase of the tail current relaxation. Initial current ∼7–10 min and was reversible (Fig. 1B). The potentiation of (x) and extrapolated (y) current are indicated for the currents measured after the prepulse to +50 mV. Horizontal dash line indicates zero current level. (C) ML277 on KCNQ1 is dose-dependent
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