Rare Catechol-O-methyltransferase Missense Variants Are Structurally Unstable Proteasome Targets

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Catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) is a key enzyme in the metabolism of catecholamines. Substrates of the enzyme include neurotransmitters such as dopamine and epinephrine, and therefore, COMT plays a central role in neurobiology. Since COMT also metabolizes catecholamine drugs such as L-DOPA, variation in COMT activity could affect pharmacokinetics and drug availability. Certain COMT missense variants have been shown to display decreased enzymatic activity. Additionally, studies have shown that such missense variants may lead to loss of function induced by impaired structural stability, which results in activation of the protein quality control system and degradation by the ubiquitin-proteasome system. Here, we demonstrate that two rare missense variants of COMT are ubiquitylated and targeted for proteasomal degradation as a result of structural destabilization and misfolding. This results in strongly reduced intracellular steady-state levels of the enzyme, which for the L135P variant is rescued upon binding to the COMT inhibitors entacapone and tolcapone. Our results reveal that the degradation is independent of the COMT isoform as both soluble (S-COMT) and ER membrane-bound (MB-COMT) variants are degraded. In silico structural stability predictions identify regions within the protein that are critical for stability overlapping with evolutionarily conserved residues, pointing toward other variants that are likely destabilized and degraded.
OriginalsprogEngelsk
TidsskriftBiochemistry
Vol/bind62
Udgave nummer8
Antal sider12
ISSN0006-2960
DOI
StatusUdgivet - 2023

Bibliografisk note

Funding Information:
This work was supported by the Novo Nordisk Foundation (https://novonordiskfonden.dk) challenge programme PRISM NNF18OC0033950 (to A.S., K.L.-L., and R.H.-P.) and NNF18OC0052441 and NNF0071057 (to R.H.-P.), the Danish Council for Independent Research (Natur og Univers, Det Frie Forskningsråd) ( https://dff.dk/ ) 10.46540/2032-00007B (to R.H.-P.), the Villum Foundation ( https://veluxfoundations.dk/ ) 40526 (to R.H.-P.). We acknowledge the use of computational resources from the core facility for biocomputing at the Department of Biology. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 American Chemical Society.

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