Splicing misregulation of SCN5A contributes to cardiac-conduction delay and heart arrhythmia in myotonic dystrophy

Fernande Freyermuth, Frédérique Rau, Yosuke Kokunai, Thomas Linke, Chantal Sellier, Masayuki Nakamori, Yoshihiro Kino, Ludovic Arandel, Arnaud Jollet, Christelle Thibault, Muriel Philipps, Serge Vicaire, Bernard Jost, Bjarne Udd, John W. Day, Denis Duboc, Karim Wahbi, Tsuyoshi Matsumura, Harutoshi Fujimura, Hideki MochizukiFrançois Deryckere, Takashi Kimura, Nobuyuki Nukina, Shoichi Ishiura, Vincent Lacroix, Amandine Campan-Fournier, Vincent Navratil, Emilie Chautard, Didier Auboeuf, Minoru Horie, Keiji Imoto, Kuang Yung Lee, Maurice S. Swanson, Adolfo Lopez De Munain, Shin Inada, Hideki Itoh, Kazuo Nakazawa, Takashi Ashihara, Eric Wang, Thomas Zimmer, Denis Furling*, Masanori P. Takahashi, Nicolas Charlet-Berguerand

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal Article peer-review

150 Scopus citations

Abstract

Myotonic dystrophy (DM) is caused by the expression of mutant RNAs containing expanded CUG repeats that sequester muscleblind-like (MBNL) proteins, leading to alternative splicing changes. Cardiac alterations, characterized by conduction delays and arrhythmia, are the second most common cause of death in DM. Using RNA sequencing, here we identify novel splicing alterations in DM heart samples, including a switch from adult exon 6B towards fetal exon 6A in the cardiac sodium channel, SCN5A. We find that MBNL1 regulates alternative splicing of SCN5A mRNA and that the splicing variant of SCN5A produced in DM presents a reduced excitability compared with the control adult isoform. Importantly, reproducing splicing alteration of Scn5a in mice is sufficient to promote heart arrhythmia and cardiac-conduction delay, two predominant features of myotonic dystrophy. In conclusion, misregulation of the alternative splicing of SCN5A may contribute to a subset of the cardiac dysfunctions observed in myotonic dystrophy.

Original languageEnglish
Article number11067
JournalNature Communications
Volume7
DOIs
StatePublished - 11 04 2016
Externally publishedYes

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