Soluble (pro)renin receptor regulation of ENaC involved in aldosterone signaling in cultured collecting duct cells
AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PHYSIOLOGY-RENAL PHYSIOLOGY
Authors: Wang, Fei; Luo, Renfei; Peng, Kexin; Liu, Xiyang; Xu, Chuanming; Lu, Xiaohan; Soodvilai, Sunhapas; Yang, Tianxin
Abstract
We have previously shown that activation of (pro)renin receptor (PRR) induces epithelial Na+ channel (ENaC) activity in cultured collecting duct cells. IIere, we examined the role of soluble PRR (sPRR). the cleavage product of PRR in ENaC regulation, and further tested its relevance to aldosterone signaling. In cultured mpkCCD cells, administration of recombinant histidine-tagged sPRR (sPRR-His) at 10 nM within minutes induced a significant and transient increase in the amiloride-sensitive shortcircuit current as assessed using the Ussing chamber technique. The acute ENaC activation was blocked by the NADPH oxidase 1/4 inhibitor GKT137892 and siRNA against Nox4 but not the beta-catenin inhibitor ICG-001. In primary rat inner medullary collecting duct cells, administration of sPRR-His at 10 nM for 24 h induced protein expression of the alpha-subunit but not II- or gamma-subunits of ENaC, in parallel with upregulation of mRNA expression as well as promoter activity of the alpha-subunit. The transcriptional activation of alpha-ENaC was dependent on beta-catenin signaling. Consistent results obtained by epithelial volt ohmmeter measurement of equivalent current and Ussing chamber determination of short-circuit current showed that aldosterone-induced transepithelial Na+ transport was inhibited by the PRR decoy inhibitor PRO20 and PF-429242. an inhibitor of sPRR-generating enzyme site-1 protease, and the response was restored by the addition of sPRR-His. Medium sPRR was elevated by aldosterone and inhibited by PF-429242. Taken together. these results demonstrate that sPRR induces two phases of ENaC activation via distinct mechanisms and functions as a mediator of the natriferic action of aldosterone.
alpha-Conotoxin as Potential to alpha 7-nAChR Recombinant Expressed in Escherichia coli
MARINE DRUGS
Authors: Liu, Yanli; Yin, Yifeng; Song, Yunyang; Wang, Kang; Wu, Fanghui; Jiang, Hui
Abstract
alpha 7 nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChR) is an important nicotinic acetylcholine receptors subtype and closely associated with cognitive disorders, such as Alzheimer's and schizophrenia disease. The mutant ArIB (V11L, V16A) of alpha-conotoxin ArIB with 17-amino acid residues specifically targets alpha 7 nAChR with no obvious effect on other nAChR subtypes. In the study, the synthetic gene encoding mature peptide of ArIB and mutant ArIB (V11L, V16A) carried a fusion protein Trx and 6 x His-tag was separately inserted in pET-32a (+) vector and transformed intoEscherichia colistrain BL21(DE3) pLysS for expression. The expressions of Trx-ArIB-His(6)and Trx-ArIB (V11L, V16A)-His(6)were soluble inEscherichia coli, which were purified by Ni-NTA affinity chromatography column and cleaved by enterokinase to release rArIB and rArIB (V11L, V16A). Then, rArIB and rArIB (V11L, V16A) were purified by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and identified by matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization-time of flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS). Bioactivity of rArIB and rArIB (V11L, V16A) was assessed by two-electrode voltage-clamp electrophysiology inXenopus laevis oocytesexpressing human nAChR subtypes. The results indicated that the yield of the fusion proteins was approximately 50 mg/L and rArIB (V11L, V16A) antagonized the alpha 7 nAChR subtype selectively with 8-nM IC50. In summary, this study provides an efficient method to biosynthesize alpha-conotoxin ArIB and rArIB (V11L, V16A) inEscherichia coli, which could be economical to obtain massively bioactive disulfide-rich polypeptides at fast speed.