title: Calcium cycling proteins and heart failure: mechanisms and therapeutics.
abstract: Ca2+-dependent signaling is highly regulated in cardiomyocytes and determines the force of cardiac muscle contraction. Ca2+ cycling refers to the release and reuptake of intracellular Ca2+ that drives muscle contraction and relaxation. In failing hearts, Ca2+ cycling is profoundly altered, resulting in impaired contractility and fatal cardiac arrhythmias. The key defects in Ca2+ cycling occur at the level of the sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR), a Ca2+ storage organelle in muscle. Defects in the regulation of Ca2+ cycling proteins including the ryanodine receptor 2, cardiac (RyR2)/Ca2+ release channel macromolecular complexes and the sarcoplasmic/endoplasmic reticulum Ca2+ ATPase 2a (SERCA2a)/phospholamban complex contribute to heart failure. RyR2s are oxidized, nitrosylated, and PKA hyperphosphorylated, resulting in "leaky" channels in failing hearts. These leaky RyR2s contribute to depletion of Ca2+ from the SR, and the leaking Ca2+ depolarizes cardiomyocytes and triggers fatal arrhythmias. SERCA2a is downregulated and phospholamban is hypophosphorylated in failing hearts, resulting in impaired SR Ca2+ reuptake that conspires with leaky RyR2 to deplete SR Ca2+. Two new therapeutic strategies for heart failure (HF) are now being tested in clinical trials: (a) fixing the leak in RyR2 channels with a novel class of Ca2+-release channel stabilizers called Rycals and (b) increasing expression of SERCA2a to improve SR Ca2+ reuptake with viral-mediated gene therapy. There are many potential opportunities for additional mechanism-based therapeutics involving the machinery that regulates Ca2+ cycling in the heart.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physiology and Cellular Biophysics and The Clyde and Helen Wu Center for Molecular Cardiology, College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University, New York, New York 10032, USA. arm42@columbia.edu
authors.forename: Andrew R
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Marks
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001145:Arrhythmias, Cardiac / Q000209:etiology / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology; D002118:Calcium / Q000378:metabolism*; D015220:Calcium Channels / Q000378:metabolism*; D002135:Calcium-Binding Proteins / Q000378:metabolism*; D002986:Clinical Trials as Topic; D006333:Heart Failure / Q000150:complications / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology; D006801:Humans; D009124:Muscle Proteins / Q000378:metabolism*; D009200:Myocardial Contraction; D009206:Myocardium / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D010766:Phosphorylation; D012519:Sarcoplasmic Reticulum / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology
chemical_list: D015220:Calcium Channels; D002135:Calcium-Binding Proteins; D009124:Muscle Proteins; D002118:Calcium