Ncor2/PPARα-dependent upregulation of MCUb in the type 2 diabetic heart impacts cardiac metabolic flexibility and function
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posted on 2020-12-10, 18:19 authored by Ada AdminAda Admin, Federico Cividini, Brian T Scott, Jorge Suarez, Darren E. Casteel, Sven Heinz, Anzhi Dai, Tanja Diemer, Jorge A Suarez, Christopher W Benner, Majid Ghassemian, Wolfgang H DillmannThe
contribution of altered mitochondrial Ca2+ handling to metabolic and
functional defects in type 2 diabetic (T2D) mouse hearts is not well
understood. Here, we show that the T2D heart is metabolically inflexible and
almost exclusively dependent on mitochondrial fatty acid oxidation as a
consequence of mitochondrial calcium uniporter complex (MCUC) inhibitory
subunit MCUb overexpression. Using a recombinant endonuclease-deficient Cas9
(dCas9)-based gene promoter pull-down approach coupled with mass spectrometry
we found that MCUb is upregulated in the T2D heart due to loss of glucose
homeostasis regulator nuclear receptor co-repressor 2 (Ncor2) repression, and
ChIP assays identified PPARα as a mediator of MCUb gene expression in T2D cardiomyocytes.
Upregulation of MCUb limits mitochondrial matrix Ca2+ uptake and impairs
mitochondrial energy production via glucose oxidation, by depressing Pyruvate
Dehydrogenase Complex (PDC) activity. Gene therapy displacement of endogenous
MCUb with a dominant-negative MCUb transgene (MCUbW246R/V251E) in vivo rescued T2D cardiomyocytes from
metabolic inflexibility, and stimulated cardiac contractile function and adrenergic
responsiveness by enhancing phospholamban (PLN) phosphorylation via Protein
Kinase A (PKA). We conclude that MCUb represents one newly-discovered molecular
effector at the interface of metabolism and cardiac function, and its repression
improves the outcome of the chronically-stressed diabetic heart.