Introduction
Mucopolysaccharidosis VI (MPS VI; Maroteaux-Lamy syndrome; OMIM #253200) is an autosomal recessive lysosomal storage disorder (LSD), that belongs to the group of mucopolysaccharidoses (MPS). The MPS are caused by defects in lysosomal enzymes that results in widespread intra- and extra-cellular accumulation of glycosaminoglycans (GAGs). MPS VI is caused by deficiency of the enzyme arylsulfatase B [ARSB] (N-acetylgalactosamine-4-sulfatase; EC 3.1.6.12) which removes the C4 sulfate ester group from the N-acetylgalactosamine sugar residue at the nonreducing terminus of the glycosaminoglycans dermatan sulfate and chondroitin sulfate (Neufeld and Muenzer
2001). Deficiency of ARSB results in the intralysosomal storage and urinary excretion of these partially degraded GAGs. The ARSB gene encodes for a polypeptide precursor of 533 amino acids, with a molecular weight of 55.8 kDa that is translocated into the lumen of the endoplasmic reticulum. Subsequently the protein is glycosylated (66 kDa) and then processed into a mature form (57 kDa) (Litjens et al
1989).
ARSB is secreted from normal cells, up taken by adjacent cells and directed to the lysosomal compartment through binding to the mannose-6 phosphate receptor (MPR) present on the plasma and endosomal membranes of most cell types (Dahms et al
1989). The enzyme reuptake by MPR that results in cross-correction of ARSB-deficient cells represents the basis for the current treatment strategies: the bone marrow/hematopoietic stem cell transplantation and the enzyme replacement therapy (ERT) (Valayannopoulos et al
2010). However, each of these treatments presents limitations and therapies that efficiently correct the bone, heart and central nervous system (CNS) anomalies of MPS are currently unavailable.
Therefore, there is need for more effective therapeutic strategies for MPS VI. Gene therapy, for instance, is aiming at converting liver in a “factory” for sustained systemic release of ARSB following a single intravascular administration of therapeutic viral vectors (Cotugno et al
2011). However, the safety and efficacy of this strategy has yet to be demonstrated in humans. Another therapeutic option can be used in MPS VI patients that bear premature stop-codon (PTC) mutations. The approach aims at suppressing the effect of the PTC by inducing its translational read-through (Manuvakhova et al
2000). Indeed, it has recently been demonstrated that certain low-molecular-weight drugs can influence the fidelity of stop codon recognition and restore production of full-length proteins (Linde and Kerem
2008). The two read-through inducer drugs that are most widely used are the aminoglycoside gentamicin and PTC124. Gentamicin antimicrobial effect is exerted by binding to polysomes and interfering with protein synthesis causing misreading and premature termination of mRNA translation (Brunton et al
2006). Gentamicin-enhanced stop codon read-through has been used as a therapeutic strategy for genetic diseases, including cystic fibrosis, Duchenne muscular dystrophy and ataxia-teleangectasia (Howard et al
2000; Du et al
2002; Lai et al
2004). Nevertheless, limitations on the use of gentamicin include its relatively low cell permeability and its toxic side effects (e.g., kidney damage and hearing loss). PTC therapeutics has recently developed a new, more-efficient read-through inducing drug, known as PTC124. PTC124 is an orally-bioavailable small molecule compound that promotes dose-dependent suppression of premature translation termination without concomitant effects on normal termination or mRNA decay. Various Phase II and Phase II-III clinical trials to prove the safety of this compound have been completed (
http://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/results?term=ataluren). PTC-124 has high permeability and unlike aminoglycosides, it has not been associated with serious toxic side effects (Hirawat et al
2007). PTC124 probably acts at a ribosomal location different from the one used by aminoglycosides since it is part of a structurally distinct class of drugs (Hirawat et al
2007).
Approximately 33 % of inherited or acquired diseases are due to PTCs (Mendell and Dietz
2001). PTCs have been identified in a large cohort of patients with MPS (Brooks et al
2006); in particular, ARSB mutational analysis in MPS VI patients has allowed to identify 16 different ARSB nonsense mutations (Human Gene Mutation Database;
http://www.hgmd.cf.ac.uk/ac/index.php, last access on January 2012) which can be potential targets of stop codon read-through. However, so far, the only evidence that supports the efficacy of stop codon read-through for MPS has been in cells from MPS I patients with PTC mutations. Gentamicin treatment of these cells resulted in increase iduronidase activity, up to 3 % of wild-type enzyme levels, which reduced substrate storage (Keeling et al
2001).
In the current study we investigated whether gentamicin and PTC124 have the potential to read-through ARSB PTCs and increase enzyme activity in MPS VI patients cell lines. Our results indicate that PTC124-mediated stop codon read-through significantly increases ARSB activity which results in reduction of GAG storage as demonstrated by the significant decrease in lysosomal size observed in drug-treated MPS VI cells.
Discussion
A nonsense mutation prematurely halts the synthesis of a protein: stop codon read-through is being considered as a potential therapeutic strategy (either alone or in combination with other therapies) for recessive genetic diseases due to nonsense mutations. Indeed several studies, most of which performed in vitro, have shown its efficacy (Linde and Kerem
2008).
For this purpose, the two drugs that are most widely used and most promising are the aminoglycoside gentamicin and the investigational new drug PTC124 (Welch et al
2007). Indeed, both are able to induce a beneficial stop codon read-through based on their ability to alter the ribosomal proofreading activity on premature termination codons, while remaining ineffective on bona fide termination codons (Rospert et al
2005). There are ongoing clinical studies testing the safety and efficacy of both, however, PTC124 may be preferable as its use is not associated with the toxicity observed with prolonged administrations of aminoglycosides. Notably, our study is one of the first which tests the effect of PTC124 in LSD (Sarkar et al
2011), as only in one additional report it has been shown that aminoglycosides can suppress nonsense mutations within the iduronidase gene mutated in MPS I (Keeling et al
2001; Wang et al
2012). A critical issue when considering this therapeutic strategy is to establish whether the efficacy of the stop codon read-through may be clinically relevant. LSDs, including MPS VI, offer a unique opportunity to address this as there is a well-defined correlation between residual enzymatic activity and disease severity: 5–10 % of enzymatic activity is thus considered therapeutic in several LSDs (Neufeld and Muenzer
2001). In addition, since the chemical drugs that are used to influence stop codon read-through tend to be lower in molecular weight and more diffusible than the proteins used for ERT, it is possible that read-through drugs will be able to reach sites of disease like bone, cartilage or brain that are resistant to the conventional ERT. Since PTCs are generally associated with low residual enzymatic activity and severe clinical manifestations, a therapy that combines both ERT and stop codon read-through may result in maximum substrate clearance and a more effective therapy for MPS VI patients with severe symptoms (Brooks et al
2006).
Importantly, we set out to determine the potential of pharmacological read-through on intact cells by analyzing the effects of gentamicin and PTC124 on endogenous nonsense-bearing transcripts directly, assuming that the read-through effect could be quantified as an increase in ARSB enzymatic activity compared to that detected in control untreated cells. Although we were able to detect significant increases in ARSB activity in MPS VI cells treated with PTC124, the levels reached did not exceed 3 % of wild-type. One possibility to explain these low levels, which however are similar to those achieved by others in MPS I cell lines, is that measuring ARSB activity may not be sensitive enough to detect low increases, since cultured MPS VI fibroblasts can uptake exogenous ARSB from the culture medium and this might result in variable degrees of baseline ARSB activity measured in control untreated fibroblasts. This might partially mask read-through-induced increases in ARSB activity after treatment with read-through agents, especially if this induction occurs at low levels. Also, we cannot exclude that culturing cells with M6P to block the uptake of exogenous ARSB, despite not impacting the activity levels of two lysosomal enzymes different from ARSB, might alter intracellular pathways involved in lysosomal enzyme processing, possibly having an effect on read-through efficacy.
Importantly, we show that PTC124-induced increase of ARSB activity levels to 2.5 % of normal significantly reduces lysosomal size suggesting that PTC124 induces clearance of lysosomal storage. This further supports the concept that slight increases in enzymatic activity can have a profound impact on LSDs.
Altogether, our results suggest that PTC124-mediated stop codon read-through has the potential to attenuate both the biochemical and the morphological abnormalities of MPS VI. Thus, PTC124 use could be considered in combination with ERT to enhance therapeutic efficacy in those districts like bone or cartilage which could be reached more effectively by a small molecule drug than by a larger protein.
Material and methods
Cell culture
Fibroblasts from MPS VI patients ML2, ML4 and ML5 were provided by the Telethon Cell line and DNA Bank from Patients with Genetic Diseases (Dr Mirella Filocamo, Gaslini Hospital Genoa, Italy). Fibroblasts from MPS VI patient ML3 were provided by the Children Hospital, University of Mainz, Germany. ML1 MPS VI and normal control fibroblasts were available at the Department of Pediatrics, Federico II University, Naples, Italy.
All cell lines were grown at 37 °C with 5%CO2, in Dulbecco’s modified Eagle’s medium (DMEM, Celbio, Milan, Italy) supplemented with 20 % fetal bovine serum (FBS, Gibco, Invitrogen corporation, Carlsbad, CA, USA), 100U/ml penicillin and 100 μg/ml streptomycin (Sigma-Aldrich, Milan, Italy). All experiments were conducted on fibroblasts at 50–70 % confluence and at various passages (specified in the
Results section). We performed three independent replicates of those experiments in which drug treatment resulted in increased enzymatic activity (PTC124 treatment of ML1 and ML2 cell lines), and duplicates of those without significant enzymatic increase following addition of read-through inducing compounds.
Reverse transcriptase-PCR
Fibroblasts were grown until confluence. Cells were washed twice with Phosphate Buffer Saline (PBS, Gibco, Invitrogen Corporation, Carlsbad, CA, USA) and harvested using trypsin/EDTA (Gibco, Invitrogen Corporation, Carlsbad, CA, USA) for 3–5 min; then the cell suspension was centrifuged at 1200 g for 5 min. The cell pellet was then washed with PBS and separated by centrifugation. The cell pellet was used to isolate total RNA using the QIAshredder and the RNeasy Minikit (Qiagen, Hilden, Germany). RNA was quantified with a Nanodrop apparatus and analyzed on an agarose gel.
A reverse transcription reaction was carried out from 1 μg of total RNA using the SuperScript® III Reverse Transcriptase (RT) (Invitrogen corporation, Carlsbad, CA, USA), following the manufacturer’s recommendations. To amplify an ARSB cDNA fragment, RT-PCR was carried out using the following primers: forward 5′- CAT GGC TCC AGC AAA GGA T – 3′ and reverse 5′ – GTC CCA AGG CTT AGG AAA G – 3′ (product length of 632 bp). For ML3 fibroblasts, forward 5′-GGT TCC CTC CAC CGT CTT – 3′ and reverse 5′-GCCTGAGGTCCAACTTCC-3′ primers were used to amplify an ARSB cDNA fragment (375 bp) specific for the PTC-bearing allele.
β-actin was also amplified using the following primers: forward 5′ – GTC CCA AGG CTT AGG AAA G – 3′ and reverse 5′ – GTC CCA AGG CTT AGG AAA G – 3′ (product length of 839 bp).
PCRs were performed using TaQ Gold DNA polymerase (Roche, Indianapolis, IN, USA) and consisted of 1 μl of template cDNA, 1.25 U TaQ Gold DNA polymerase, 2.5 mM MgCl2 in the recommended buffer, 200 μM of dNTPs, and 0.5 μM of each primer in a final volume of 25 μl. The reactions cycles used are the following: 5 min at 95 °C; 40 cycles of denaturation at 94 °C for 45 s, annealing at 56 °C for 45 s and elongation at 72 °C for 85 s; final extension step at 72 °C for 7 min. The amplification reactions were performed in a T3000 Thermocycler (Biometra, Goettingen, Germany). The resulting PCR products were separated on a 1 % agarose gel. Samples from patients ML1 and ML3 required two consecutive rounds of PCR amplifications performed on the same template.
Gentamicin and PTC124 treatment
All the MPS VI cell lines were maintained in culture medium containing 5 mM M6P, for a period of 7–13 days before and during the incubation with the drugs.
Read-through induction cells were incubated in the presence of 1 mg/ml gentamicin (Sigma-Aldrich, Milan, Italy) for 12, 24, 48 or 72 h. Stock solutions (6 mM) of PTC124 (Selleck Chemical LLC, Houston, USA) were prepared in 100 % DMSO (Sigma-Aldrich, Milan, Italy). Fibroblasts were incubated in the presence of 3.3 μM, 10 μM PTC-124 or 1.6 % DMSO (mock treated) for 48 h. During the incubation time, cells were cultivated in the absence of antibiotic drugs.
Protein extraction and ARSB activity assay
After the selected time point, cells were washed twice with PBS and harvested using trypsin/EDTA for 3–5 min; then the cell suspension was centrifuged at 1200 g for 5 min. The cell pellet was then washed twice with PBS and then re-centrifuged. The resulting supernatant was removed and cells were lysed in water in the presence of a protease inhibitor cocktail (Roche, Indianapolis, USA) with three repeated cycles of freezing and thawing; cell debris were eliminated by centrifugation at 13,000 rpm for 20 min; the supernatant was collected and subjected to further analysis. Total protein concentration in cellular extracts was measured using the colorimetric BCA protein assay kit (Pierce Chemical Co, Boston, MA, USA) and a standard curve with seven different concentrations of bovine serum albumine (Pierce Chemical Co, Boston, MA, USA): 0.05, 0.1, 0.2, 0.4, 0.6, 0.8 and 1 μg/μl. Colorimetric reaction was quantified with an absorbance reader (Infinite F200, Tecan, Mannedorf, Switzerland) using a 560 nm filter.
The ARSB activity assay was performed as described previously (Tessitore et al
2008). Briefly, 15 ug of proteins were incubated with 40 μl of the fluorogenic substrate, 4-methylumbelliferyl-sulfate potassium salt (12.5 mM Sigma-Aldrich, Milan, Italy), for 3 h at 37 °C in the presence of 40 μl of silver nitrate (0.75 mM, Carlo Erba, Milan, Italy), which is known to inhibit the activity deriving from other sulfatases. The reaction was stopped by adding 200 μl of the carbonate stop buffer (0.5 M NaHCO3/0.5 M Na2CO3, pH 10.7), and the fluorescence of the 4-methylumbelliferone liberated was measured in a fluorimeter (Infinite F200, Tecan, Mannedorf, Switzerland) using 365 nm excitation and 460 nm emission. The enzyme activities were calculated using a standard curve of the fluorogenic product, 4-methylumbelliferone (Sigma-Aldrich, Milan, Italy). β-galactosidase and α-glucosidase activities were assayed as previously described, using the appropriate substrates. β-galactosidase (4-methylumbelliferyl-b-D-galactoside, Sigma-Aldrich, Milan, Italy) and α-glucosidase (4-methylumbelliferyl-b-D-glucoside, Sigma-Aldrich, Milan, Italy) (Kresse et al
1982). For cellular extracts the activity is expressed as nmol/mg protein/h.
Electron microscopy (EM) analysis of MPS VI fibroblasts
Fibroblasts from the ML2 MPS VI patient were treated for 2 days with either PTC124 10 μM or 1.6 % DMSO (mock treated). Wild-type fibroblasts were used as controls. Cells were fixed in 1 % glutaraldehyde in 0.2 M HEPES buffer, post-fixed in uranyl acetate and in OsO4. After dehydration through a graded series of ethanol, the cells were embedded in Epoxy resin (Epon 812, Sigma-Aldrich, St. Louis, MO, USA) and polymerized at 60 °C for 72 h. From each sample, thin sections were cut with a Leica EM UC6 ultramicrotome (Leica Mycosystems, Vienna, Austria). EM images were acquired from thin sections using an FEI Tecnai-12 electron microscope (FEI, Eindhoven, Netherlands) equipped with an ULTRA VIEW CCD digital camera (Soft Imaging Systems GmbH, Munster, Germany). Quantification of lysosome-like organelles size was performed using the iTEM software (Soft Imaging Systems GmbH, Munster, Germany).
Statistical analysis
The statistical analysis of data obtained from each experimental group was performed by using the unpaired two-tail Student’s t-test. A P value ≤0.05 was considered significant.
Acknowledgments
MPS VI fibroblasts were provided by the Telethon Cell line and DNA Bank from Patients with Genetic Diseases (Dr Mirella Filocamo, Gaslini Hospital Genoa, Italy) supported by the Telethon Foundation; and by the Children Hospital, Villa Metabolica (Dr Michael Beck and Dr Christina Lampe, University of Mainz, Germany). We gratefully acknowledge Drs. Graciana Diez-Roux and Giancarlo Parenti for the critical reading of this manuscript; Dr. Gabriella Cotugno for helpful discussion and advice throughout the project, Simona Iacobacci for EM specimen preparation and the Telethon Electron Microscopy Core Facility (TeEMCoF, IBP, CNR, Naples; Telethon project #GTF08001) for EM support. This work was supported by the Italian Telethon Grant Foundation (TGM06C03), by the US National MPS Society and by the Isaac Foundation.