A new cell-penetrating peptide that blocks the autoinhibitory XIP domain of NCX1 and enhances antiporter activity

The distinguishing electrical properties of cancer cells

In recent decades, medical research has been primarily focused on the inherited aspect of cancers, despite the reality that only 5-10% of tumours discovered are derived from genetic causes. Cancer is a broad term, and therefore it is inaccurate to address it as a purely genetic disease. Understanding cancer cells' behaviour is the first step in countering them. Behind the scenes, there is a complicated network of environmental factors, DNA errors, metabolic shifts, and electrostatic alterations that build over time and lead to the illness's development. This latter aspect has been analyzed in previous studies, but how the different electrical changes integrate and affect each other is rarely examined. Every cell in the human body possesses electrical properties that are essential for proper behaviour both within and outside of the cell itself. It is not yet clear whether these changes correlate with cell mutation in cancer cells, or only with their subsequent development. Either way, these aspects merit further investigation, especially with regards to their causes and consequences. Trying to block changes at various levels of occurrence or assisting in their prevention could be the key to stopping cells from becoming cancerous. Therefore, a comprehensive understanding of the current knowledge regarding the electrical landscape of cells is much needed. We review four essential electrical characteristics of cells, providing a deep understanding of the electrostatic changes in cancer cells compared to their normal counterparts. In particular, we provide an overview of intracellular and extracellular pH modifications, differences in ionic concentrations in the cytoplasm, transmembrane potential variations, and changes within mitochondria. New therapies targeting or exploiting the electrical properties of cells are developed and tested every year, such as pH-dependent carriers and tumour-treating fields. A brief section regarding the state-of-the-art of these therapies can be found at the end of this review. Finally, we highlight how these alterations integrate and potentially yield indications of cells' malignancy or metastatic index.

Role of Microglia and Astrocytes in Alzheimer’s Disease: From Neuroinflammation to Ca2+ Homeostasis Dysregulation

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most common form of dementia worldwide, with a complex, poorly understood pathogenesis. Cerebral atrophy, amyloid-β (Aβ) plaques, and neurofibrillary tangles represent the main pathological hallmarks of the AD brain. Recently, neuroinflammation has been recognized as a prominent feature of the AD brain and substantial evidence suggests that the inflammatory response modulates disease progression. Additionally, dysregulation of calcium (Ca2+) homeostasis represents another early factor involved in the AD pathogenesis, as intracellular Ca2+ concentration is essential to ensure proper cellular and neuronal functions. Although growing evidence supports the involvement of Ca2+ in the mechanisms of neurodegeneration-related inflammatory processes, scant data are available on its contribution in microglia and astrocytes functioning, both in health and throughout the AD continuum. Nevertheless, AD-related aberrant Ca2+ signalling in astrocytes and microglia is crucially involved in the mechanisms underpinning neuroinflammatory processes that, in turn, impact neuronal Ca2+ homeostasis and brain function. In this light, we attempted to provide an overview of the current understanding of the interactions between the glia cells-mediated inflammatory responses and the molecular mechanisms involved in Ca2+ homeostasis dysregulation in AD.

Na+/Ca2+ exchanger isoform 1 takes part to the Ca2+-related prosurvival pathway of SOD1 in primary motor neurons exposed to beta-methylamino-L-alanine

Background

The cycad neurotoxin beta-methylamino-l-alanine (L-BMAA), one of the environmental trigger factor for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis/Parkinson-dementia complex (ALS/PDC), may cause neurodegeneration by disrupting organellar Ca²⁺ homeostasis. Through the activation of Akt/ERK1/2 pathway, the Cu,Zn-superoxide dismutase (SOD1) and its non-metallated form, ApoSOD1, prevent endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress-induced cell death in motor neurons exposed to L-BMAA. This occurs through the rapid increase of intracellular Ca²⁺ concentration ([Ca²⁺]_i) in part flowing from the extracellular compartment and in part released from ER. However, the molecular components of this mechanism remain uncharacterized.

Methods

By an integrated approach consisting on the use of siRNA strategy, Western blotting, confocal double- labeling immunofluorescence, patch-clamp electrophysiology, and Fura 2-/SBFI-single-cell imaging, we explored in rat motor neuron-enriched cultures the involvement of the plasma membrane proteins Na⁺/Ca²⁺ exchanger (NCX) and purinergic P₂X₇ receptor as well as that of the intracellular cADP-ribose (cADPR) pathway, in the neuroprotective mechanism of SOD1.

Results

We showed that SOD1-induced [Ca²⁺]_i rise was prevented neither by A430879, a P₂X₇ receptor specific antagonist or 8-bromo-cADPR, a cell permeant antagonist of cADP-ribose, but only by the pan inhibitor of NCX, CB-DMB. The same occurred for the ApoSOD1. Confocal double labeling immunofluorescence showed a huge expression of plasmalemmal NCX1 and intracellular NCX3 isoforms. Furthermore, we identified NCX1 reverse mode as the main mechanism responsible for the neuroprotective ER Ca²⁺ refilling elicited by SOD1 and ApoSOD1 through which they promoted translocation of active Akt in the nuclei of a subset of primary motor neurons. Finally, the activation of NCX1 by the specific agonist CN-PYB2 protected motor neurons from L-BMAA-induced cell death, mimicking the effect of SOD1.

Conclusion

Collectively, our data indicate that SOD1 and ApoSOD1 exert their neuroprotective effect by modulating ER Ca²⁺ content through the activation of NCX1 reverse mode and Akt nuclear translocation in a subset of primary motor neurons.

The Cardiac Na+ -Ca2+ Exchanger: From Structure to Function

Ca²⁺ homeostasis is essential for cell function and survival. As such, the cytosolic Ca²⁺ concentration is tightly controlled by a wide number of specialized Ca²⁺ handling proteins. One among them is the Na⁺ -Ca²⁺ exchanger (NCX), a ubiquitous plasma membrane transporter that exploits the electrochemical gradient of Na⁺ to drive Ca²⁺ out of the cell, against its concentration gradient. In this critical role, this secondary transporter guides vital physiological processes such as Ca²⁺ homeostasis, muscle contraction, bone formation, and memory to name a few. Herein, we review the progress made in recent years about the structure of the mammalian NCX and how it relates to function. Particular emphasis will be given to the mammalian cardiac isoform, NCX1.1, due to the extensive studies conducted on this protein. Given the degree of conservation among the eukaryotic exchangers, the information highlighted herein will provide a foundation for our understanding of this transporter family. We will discuss gene structure, alternative splicing, topology, regulatory mechanisms, and NCX's functional role on cardiac physiology. Throughout this article, we will attempt to highlight important milestones in the field and controversial topics where future studies are required. © 2021 American Physiological Society. Compr Physiol 12:1-37, 2021.

Advances in Intracellular Calcium Signaling Reveal Untapped Targets for Cancer Therapy

Intracellular Ca2+ distribution is a tightly regulated process. Numerous Ca2+ chelating, storage, and transport mechanisms are required to maintain normal cellular physiology. Ca2+-binding proteins, mainly calmodulin and calbindins, sequester free intracellular Ca2+ ions and apportion or transport them to signaling hubs needing the cations. Ca2+ channels, ATP-driven pumps, and exchangers assist the binding proteins in transferring the ions to and from appropriate cellular compartments. Some, such as the endoplasmic reticulum, mitochondria, and lysosomes, act as Ca2+ repositories. Cellular Ca2+ homeostasis is inefficient without the active contribution of these organelles. Moreover, certain key cellular processes also rely on inter-organellar Ca2+ signaling. This review attempts to encapsulate the structure, function, and regulation of major intracellular Ca2+ buffers, sensors, channels, and signaling molecules before highlighting how cancer cells manipulate them to survive and thrive. The spotlight is then shifted to the slow pace of translating such research findings into anticancer therapeutics. We use the PubMed database to highlight current clinical studies that target intracellular Ca2+ signaling. Drug repurposing and improving the delivery of small molecule therapeutics are further discussed as promising strategies for speeding therapeutic development in this area.

Role of Sodium/Calcium Exchangers in Tumors

The sodium/calcium exchanger (NCX) is a unique calcium transport system, generally transporting calcium ions out of the cell in exchange for sodium ions. Nevertheless, under special conditions this transporter can also work in a reverse mode, in which direction of the ion transport is inverted—calcium ions are transported inside the cell and sodium ions are transported out of the cell. To date, three isoforms of the NCX have been identified and characterized in humans. Majority of information about the NCX function comes from isoform 1 (NCX1). Although knowledge about NCX function has evolved rapidly in recent years, little is known about these transport systems in cancer cells. This review aims to summarize current knowledge about NCX functions in individual types of cancer cells.

Palmitoylation: A Fatty Regulator of Myocardial Electrophysiology

Regulation of cardiac physiology is well known to occur through the action of kinases that reversibly phosphorylate ion channels, calcium handling machinery, and signaling effectors. However, it is becoming increasingly apparent that palmitoylation or S-acylation, the post-translational modification of cysteines with saturated fatty acids, plays instrumental roles in regulating the localization, activity, stability, sorting, and function of numerous proteins, including proteins known to have essential functions in cardiomyocytes. However, the impact of this modification on cardiac physiology requires further investigation. S-acylation is catalyzed by the zDHHC family of S-acyl transferases that localize to intracellular organelle membranes or the sarcolemma. Recent work has begun to uncover functions of S-acylation in the heart, particularly in the regulation of cardiac electrophysiology, including modification of the sodium-calcium exchanger, phospholemman and the cardiac sodium pump, as well as the voltage-gated sodium channel. Elucidating the regulatory functions of zDHHC enzymes in cardiomyocytes and determination of how S-acylation is altered in the diseased heart will shed light on how these modifications participate in cardiac pathogenesis and potentially identify novel targets for the treatment of cardiovascular disease. Indeed, proteins with critical signaling roles in the heart are also S-acylated, including receptors and G-proteins, yet the dynamics and functions of these modifications in myocardial physiology have not been interrogated. Here, we will review what is known about zDHHC enzymes and substrate S-acylation in myocardial physiology and highlight future areas of investigation that will uncover novel functions of S-acylation in cardiac homeostasis and pathophysiology.

Genetic Up-Regulation or Pharmacological Activation of the Na+/Ca2+ Exchanger 1 (NCX1) Enhances Hippocampal-Dependent Contextual and Spatial Learning and Memory

The Na⁺/Ca²⁺ exchanger 1 (NCX1) participates in the maintenance of neuronal Na⁺ and Ca²⁺ homeostasis, and it is highly expressed at synapse level of some brain areas involved in learning and memory processes, including the hippocampus, cortex, and amygdala. Furthermore, NCX1 increases Akt1 phosphorylation and enhances glutamate-mediated Ca²⁺ influx during depolarization in hippocampal and cortical neurons, two processes involved in learning and memory mechanisms. We investigated whether the modulation of NCX1 expression/activity might influence learning and memory processes. To this aim, we used a knock-in mouse overexpressing NCX1 in hippocampal, cortical, and amygdala neurons (ncx1.4^over) and a newly synthesized selective NCX1 stimulating compound, named CN-PYB2. Both ncx1.4^over and CN-PYB2-treated mice showed an amelioration in spatial learning performance in Barnes maze task, and in context-dependent memory consolidation after trace fear conditioning. On the other hand, these mice showed no improvement in novel object recognition task which is mainly dependent on non-spatial memory and displayed an increase in the active phosphorylated CaMKIIα levels in the hippocampus. Interestingly, both of these mice showed an increased level of context-dependent anxiety.Altogether, these results demonstrate that neuronal NCX1 participates in spatial-dependent hippocampal learning and memory processes.

New perspectives for selective NCX activators in neurodegenerative diseases

The Na⁺/Ca²⁺ exchanger plays a relevant role in several neurological disorders, thus the pharmacological modulation of its isoforms might represent a promising strategy to ameliorate the course of some neurological pathologies including stroke, neonatal hypoxia, multiple sclerosis (MS), amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), Alzheimer Disease (AD), and spinal muscular atrophy (SMA). This review will summarize heterocyclic, peptidergic, genetic and epigenetic compounds activating or inhibiting the expression/activity of each NCX isoform. In addition, we will focus our attention on the development of new strategies aimed to ameliorate the pathophysiological conditions in which NCX isoform changes are found.

Heparin Oligosaccharides Have Antiarrhythmic Effect by Accelerating the Sodium-Calcium Exchanger

Background: Blockage of the Na⁺/Ca²⁺ exchanger (NCX) is used to determine the role of NCX in arrhythmogenesis. Trisulfated heparin disaccharide (TD) and Low Molecular Weight Heparins (LMWHs) can directly interact with the NCX and accelerate its activity.

Objective: In this work, we investigated the antiarrhythmic effect of heparin oligosaccharides related to the NCX activity.

Methods: The effects of heparin oligosaccharides were tested on the NCX current (patch clamping) and intracellular calcium transient in rat cardiomyocytes. The effects of heparin oligosaccharides were further investigated in arrhythmia induced in isolated rat atria and rats in vivo.

Results: The intracellular Ca²⁺ concentration decreases upon treatment with either enoxaparin or ardeparin. These drugs abolished arrhythmia induction in isolated atria. The NCX antagonist KB-R7943 abolished the enoxaparin or ardeparin antiarrhythmic effects in isolated atria. In the in vivo measurements, injection of TD 15 min both before coronary occlusion or immediately after reperfusion, significantly prevented the occurrence of reperfusion-induced arrhythmias (ventricular arrhythmia and total AV block) and reduced the lethality rate. The patch clamping experiments showed that, mechanistically, TD increases the forward mode NCX current.

Conclusion: Together, the data shows that heparin oligosaccharides may constitute a new class of antiarrhythmic drug that acts by accelerating the forward mode NCX under calcium overload.

Neuronal NCX1 overexpression induces stroke resistance while knockout induces vulnerability via Akt

Three different Na⁺/Ca²⁺ exchanger (NCX) isoforms, NCX1, NCX2, and NCX3, are expressed in brain where they play a relevant role in maintaining Na⁺ and Ca²⁺ homeostasis. Although the neuroprotective roles of NCX2 and NCX3 in stroke have been elucidated, the relevance of NCX1 is still unknown because of embryonic lethality of its knocking-out, heart dysfunctions when it is overexpressed, and the lack of selectivity in currently available drugs. To overcome these limitations we generated two conditional genetically modified mice that upon tamoxifen administration showed a selective decrease or increase of NCX1 in cortical and hippocampal neurons. Interestingly, in cortex and hippocampus NCX1 overexpression increased, where NCX1 knock-out reduced, both exchanger activity and Akt1 phosphorylation, a neuronal survival signaling. More important, mice overexpressing NCX1 showed a reduced ischemic volume and an amelioration of focal and general deficits when subjected to transient middle cerebral artery occlusion. Conversely, NCX1-knock-out mice displayed a worsening of brain damage, focal and neurological deficits with a decrease in Akt phosphorylation. These results support the idea that NCX1 overexpression/activation may represent a feasible therapeutic opportunity in stroke intervention.

Sodium-Calcium Exchanger in Pig Coronary Artery

This review focuses on the sodium-calcium exchangers (NCX) in the left anterior descending coronary artery smooth muscle. Bathing tissues in Na⁺-substituted solutions caused them to contract. In cultured smooth muscle cells, it increased the cytosolic Ca²⁺ concentration and extracellular entry of ⁴⁵Ca²⁺. All three activities were attributed to NCX since they were inhibited by NCX inhibitors. The tissues also expressed the sarco/endoplasmic reticulum (SER) Ca²⁺ pump SERCA2b whose activity was much greater than that of NCX. Inhibiting SERCA2b with thapsigargin decreased the NCX-mediated ⁴⁵Ca²⁺ accumulation by the cells. The decrease was not observed in cells loaded with the Ca²⁺-chelator BAPTA. The results are consistent with a limited diffusional space model with a proximity between NCX and SERCA2b. NCX molecules appear to be colocalized with the subsarcolemmal SERCA2b based on studies on membrane flotation experiments and microscopic fluorescence imaging of antibody-labeled cells. Thapsigargin inhibition of SERCA2b moved NCX even closer to SER. This provides a model for the NCX-mediated Ca²⁺ refilling of SER in the arterial smooth muscle. The model for the NCX-mediated refilling of the depleted SER proposed for smooth muscle did not apply to endothelium in which NCX levels were greater and SERCA levels were lower than in smooth muscle. The effect of thapsigargin on the NCX-mediated Ca²⁺ accumulation which was observed in smooth muscle was absent in the endothelium. We propose that the coupling between NCX and smooth muscle may be tissue dependent.

Sumoylation of LYS590 of NCX3 f-Loop by SUMO1 Participates in Brain Neuroprotection Induced by Ischemic Preconditioning

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

The small ubiquitin-like modifier (SUMO), a ubiquitin-like protein involved in posttranslational protein modifications, is activated by several conditions, such as heat stress, hypoxia, and hibernation and confers neuroprotection. Sumoylation enzymes and substrates are expressed also at the plasma membrane level. Among the numerous plasma membrane proteins controlling ionic homeostasis during cerebral ischemia, 1 of the 3 brain sodium/calcium exchangers (NCX3), exerts a protective role during ischemic preconditioning. In this study, we evaluated whether NCX3 is a target for sumoylation and whether this posttranslational modification participates in ischemic preconditioning-induced neuroprotection. To test these hypotheses, we analyzed (1) SUMO1 conjugation pattern after ischemic preconditioning; (2) the effect of SUMO1 knockdown on the ischemic damage after transient middle cerebral artery occlusion and ischemic preconditioning, (3) the possible interaction between SUMO1 and NCX3 and (4) the molecular determinants of NCX3 sequence responsible for sumoylation.

METHODS

Focal brain ischemia and ischemic preconditioning were induced in rats by middle cerebral artery occlusion. SUMOylation was evaluated by western blot and immunohistochemistry. SUMO1 and NCX3 interaction was analyzed by site-directed mutagenesis and immunoprecipitation assay.

RESULTS

We found that (1) SUMO1 knockdown worsened ischemic damage and reduced the protective effect of preconditioning; (2) SUMO1 bound to NCX3 at lysine residue 590, and its silencing increased NCX3 degradation; and (3) NCX3 sumoylation participates in SUMO1 protective role during ischemic preconditioning. Thus, our results demonstrate that NCX3 sumoylation confers additional neuroprotection in ischemic preconditioning.

CONCLUSIONS

Finally, this study suggests that NCX3 sumoylation might be a new target to enhance ischemic preconditioning-induced neuroprotection.