Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM), a heart-related abnormality, is the most prevalent cause of sudden death in young athletes at sporting events. A cluster of cardiomyopathy mutations are localized in β-cardiac myosin at the N-terminal region of subfragment-2. Using resonance energy transfer probes, a synthetic peptide model system was developed to study stability of the coiled coil (S2 fragment) structure by determining monomer-dimer equilibrium of the peptide. Fluorescence resonance energy transfer and MacroModel software suite were used to obtain distance measurements along with measurement of coiled coil formation. The model peptide was used to characterize the effects of disease-causing-mutations and examine potential candidate drugs (polyamines) to counteract effects of mutations causing HCM. Distance measurements between donor and acceptor probes obtained by computational simulation and fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) were consistent. Measurements also agreed with simulations of unlabeled wildtype, indicating coiled coil structural stability of the peptide. Interaction of the site-specific antibody with the peptide strongly inhibited dimerization and destabilized coiled coil structure of the peptide. Presence of negatively charged glutamate residues in the region of subfragment-2 strongly suggested a potential interaction site for positively charged polyamines. Binding of certain polyamines, such as poly-L-Lysine 11 residues and poly-D-Lysine 17 residues, demonstrated the ability to enhance dimerization and improve stability of the coiled coil structure, while some other polyamines were shown to have insignificant impact on the structure. In an attempt to characterize the effect of HCM-causing-mutations, peptides containing E924K mutation and lethal mutation E930 deletion were synthesized. Fluorescence resonance probes were conjugated to the mutant peptides to determine coiled coil formation. Results obtained from both dynamic simulations and resonance energy transfer experiments indicated that these mutations strongly inhibit dimerization, and thus, destabilize coiled coil structure of the peptide. Further experiments were conducted using heterodimers containing a chain of wildtype and a chain of mutant peptide. Both E924K & Edel930 mutations destabilized coiled coil formation and prevented dimerization. This peptide model system would provide a promising tool for drug development targeting HCM-causing-mutations along the S2 region of myosin.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:unt.edu/info:ark/67531/metadc283844 |
| Date | 08 1900 |
| Creators | Taei, Nasrin |
| Contributors | Root, Douglas D., Benjamin, Robert C., O'Donovan, Gerard |
| Publisher | University of North Texas |
| Source Sets | University of North Texas |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | Text |
| Rights | Public, Taei, Nasrin, Copyright, Copyright is held by the author, unless otherwise noted. All rights Reserved. |
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