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Pecimonova M, Kluckova D, Csicsay F, Reblova K, Krahulec J, Procházkova D, Skultety L, Kadasi L, Soltysova A. Structural and Functional Impact of Seven Missense Variants of Phenylalanine Hydroxylase. Genes (Basel) 2019; 10:E459. [PMID: 31208052 PMCID: PMC6628251 DOI: 10.3390/genes10060459] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/19/2019] [Revised: 06/12/2019] [Accepted: 06/13/2019] [Indexed: 11/17/2022] Open
Abstract
The molecular genetics of well-characterized inherited diseases, such as phenylketonuria (PKU) and hyperphenylalaninemia (HPA) predominantly caused by mutations in the phenylalanine hydroxylase (PAH) gene, is often complicated by the identification of many novel variants, often with no obvious impact on the associated disorder. To date, more than 1100 PAH variants have been identified of which a substantial portion have unknown clinical significance. In this work, we study the functionality of seven yet uncharacterized PAH missense variants p.Asn167Tyr, p.Thr200Asn, p.Asp229Gly, p.Gly239Ala, p.Phe263Ser, p.Ala342Pro, and p.Ile406Met first identified in the Czech PKU/HPA patients. From all tested variants, three of them, namely p.Asn167Tyr, p.Thr200Asn, and p.Ile406Met, exerted residual enzymatic activity in vitro similar to wild type (WT) PAH, however, when expressed in HepG2 cells, their protein level reached a maximum of 72.1% ± 4.9%, 11.2% ± 4.2%, and 36.6% ± 7.3% compared to WT PAH, respectively. Remaining variants were null with no enzyme activity and decreased protein levels in HepG2 cells. The chaperone-like effect of applied BH4 precursor increased protein level significantly for p.Asn167Tyr, p.Asp229Gly, p.Ala342Pro, and p.Ile406Met. Taken together, our results of functional characterization in combination with in silico prediction suggest that while p.Asn167Tyr, p.Thr200Asn, and p.Ile406Met PAH variants have a mild impact on the protein, p.Asp229Gly, p.Gly239Ala, p.Phe263Ser, and p.Ala342Pro severely affect protein structure and function.
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Affiliation(s)
- Martina Pecimonova
- Department of Molecular Biology, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Comenius University, Ilkovicova 6, 842 15 Bratislava, Slovakia.
| | - Daniela Kluckova
- Department of Molecular Biology, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Comenius University, Ilkovicova 6, 842 15 Bratislava, Slovakia.
| | - Frantisek Csicsay
- Insitute of Virology, Biomedical Research Center, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Dubravska cesta 9, 845 05 Bratislava, Slovakia.
| | - Kamila Reblova
- Central European Institute of Technology, Masaryk University, 625 00 Brno, Czech Republic.
| | - Jan Krahulec
- Department of Molecular Biology, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Comenius University, Ilkovicova 6, 842 15 Bratislava, Slovakia.
| | - Dagmar Procházkova
- Department of Pediatrics, Medical Faculty of Masaryk University and University Hospital Brno, Černopolní 9, 625 00 Brno, Czech Republic.
| | - Ludovit Skultety
- Insitute of Virology, Biomedical Research Center, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Dubravska cesta 9, 845 05 Bratislava, Slovakia.
| | - Ludevit Kadasi
- Department of Molecular Biology, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Comenius University, Ilkovicova 6, 842 15 Bratislava, Slovakia.
- Institute for Clinical and Translational Research, Biomedical Research Center, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Dubravska cesta 9, 845 05 Bratislava, Slovakia.
| | - Andrea Soltysova
- Department of Molecular Biology, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Comenius University, Ilkovicova 6, 842 15 Bratislava, Slovakia.
- Institute for Clinical and Translational Research, Biomedical Research Center, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Dubravska cesta 9, 845 05 Bratislava, Slovakia.
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Pecimonova M, Polak E, Csicsay F, Reblova K, Stojiljkovic M, Levarski Z, Skultety L, Kadasi L, Soltysova A. Functional and structural characterisation of 5 missense mutations of the phenylalanine hydroxylase. Gen Physiol Biophys 2017; 36:361-371. [PMID: 28653649 DOI: 10.4149/gpb_2017003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/20/2016] [Accepted: 01/27/2017] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
Phenylketonuria (PKU) and hyperphenylalaninemia (HPA) are a group of genetic disorders predominantly caused by mutations in the phenylalanine hydroxylase (PAH) gene. To date, more than 950 variants have been identified, however the pathogenic mechanism of many variants remains unknown. In this study, in silico prediction and in vitro prokaryotic and eukaryotic expression systems were used to functionally characterize five PAH missense variants (p.F233I, p.R270I, p.F331S, p.S350Y, and p.L358F) previously identified in Slovak and Czech patients. p.F233I, p.R270I, and p.S350Y were classified as deleterious mutations since they showed no specific activity in functional assay and no response to chaperone co-expression. Protein levels of these PAH variants were very low when expressed in HepG2 cells, and only p.S350Y responded to BH4 precursor overload by significant increase in PAH monomer, probably due to reduced rate of protein degradation as the result of proper protein folding. Variants p.F331S and p.L358F exerted residual enzymatic activity in vitro. While the first can be classified as probably pathogenic due to its very low protein levels in HepG2 cells, the latter is considered to be mild mutation with protein levels of approximately 17.85% compared to wt PAH. Our findings contribute to better understanding of structure and function of PAH mutated enzymes and optimal treatment of PKU patients carrying these mutations using BH4 supplementation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Martina Pecimonova
- Department of Molecular Biology, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Comenius University, Ilkovicova 6, 842 15 Bratislava, Slovakia.
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