[HTML][HTML] Integrity and stability of PTC bearing CFTR mRNA and relevance to future modulator therapies in cystic fibrosis

LA Clarke, VCC Luz, S Targowski, SS Ramalho… - Genes, 2021 - mdpi.com
LA Clarke, VCC Luz, S Targowski, SS Ramalho, CM Farinha, MD Amaral
Genes, 2021mdpi.com
Major advances have recently been made in the development and application of CFTR
(cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator) mutation class-specific modulator
therapies, but to date, there are no approved modulators for Class I mutations, ie, those
introducing a premature termination codon (PTC) into the CFTR mRNA. Such mutations
induce nonsense-mediated decay (NMD), a cellular quality control mechanism that reduces
the quantity of PTC bearing mRNAs, presumably to avoid translation of potentially …
Major advances have recently been made in the development and application of CFTR (cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator) mutation class-specific modulator therapies, but to date, there are no approved modulators for Class I mutations, i.e., those introducing a premature termination codon (PTC) into the CFTR mRNA. Such mutations induce nonsense-mediated decay (NMD), a cellular quality control mechanism that reduces the quantity of PTC bearing mRNAs, presumably to avoid translation of potentially deleterious truncated CFTR proteins. The NMD-mediated reduction of PTC-CFTR mRNA molecules reduces the efficacy of one of the most promising approaches to treatment of such mutations, namely, PTC readthrough therapy, using molecules that induce the incorporation of near-cognate amino acids at the PTC codon, thereby enabling translation of a full-length protein. In this study, we measure the effect of three different PTC mutations on the abundance, integrity, and stability of respective CFTR mRNAs, using CFTR specific RT-qPCR-based assays. Altogether, our data suggest that optimized rescue of PTC mutations has to take into account (1) the different steady-state levels of the CFTR mRNA associated with each specific PTC mutation; (2) differences in abundance between the 3′ and 5′ regions of CFTR mRNA, even following PTC readthrough or NMD inhibition; and (3) variable effects on CFTR mRNA stability for each specific PTC mutation.
MDPI