Key result
The ARVC-related DSG2 mutation p.D105E significantly increased cell-cell adhesion compared to wildtype, yielding 8.7 versus 17.5 fragments in a dispase assay (p<0.001).
Absolute Event Rate: 8.7% vs 17.5%
p-value: p=<0.001
DSG2 mutations associated with ARVC significantly alter the binding kinetics of homophilic Dsg2 interactions, providing insight into the molecular pathomechanisms of the disease.
DSG2 variants may warrant functional adhesion assays in ARVC diagnostics; leaves open clinical translation of binding defects.
Cadherins are calcium dependent adhesion proteins that establish the intercellular mechanical contact by bridging the gap to adjacent cells. Desmoglein-2 (Dsg2) is a specific cadherin of the cell-cell contact in cardiac desmosomes. Mutations in the DSG2-gene are regarded to cause arrhythmogenic (right ventricular) cardiomyopathy (ARVC) which is a rare but severe heart muscle disease. The molecular pathomechanisms of the vast majority of DSG2 mutations, however, are unknown. Here, we investigated the homophilic binding of wildtype Dsg2 and two mutations which are associated with ARVC. Using single molecule force spectroscopy and applying Jarzynski's equality we determined the kinetics and thermodynamics of Dsg2 homophilic binding. Notably, the free energy landscape of Dsg2 dimerization exposes a high activation barrier which is in line with the proposed strand-swapping binding motif. Although the binding motif is not directly affected by the mutations the binding kinetics differ significantly from the wildtype. Furthermore, we applied a dispase based cell dissociation assay using HT1080 cell lines over expressing Dsg2 wildtype and mutants, respectively. Our molecular and cellular results consistently demonstrate that Dsg2 mutations can heavily affect homophilic Dsg2 interactions. Furthermore, the full thermodynamic and kinetic description of Dsg2 dimerization provides a consistent model of the so far discussed homophilic cadherin binding.
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Dieding et al. (2017) studied Arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathy. DSG2 mutations (p.D105E and p.V343I) vs. Wildtype DSG2 was evaluated on Number of monolayer fragments in dispase-based cell dissociation assay (p=<0.001). The ARVC-related DSG2 mutation p.D105E significantly increased cell-cell adhesion compared to wildtype, yielding 8.7 versus 17.5 fragments in a dispase assay (p<0.001).
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