RYR1 Sequence Variants in Myopathies: Expression and Functional Studies in Two Families.

The skeletal muscle ryanodine receptor (RyR1), i.e., the Ca2+ channel of the sarco/endoplasmic reticulum (S/ER), and the voltage-dependent calcium channel Cav1.1 are the principal channels involved in excitation-contraction coupling in skeletal muscle. RYR1 gene variants are linked to distinct skeletal muscle disorders, including malignant hyperthermia susceptibility and central core disease (CCD), mainly with autosomal dominant inheritance, and autosomal recessive myopathies with a broad phenotypic and histopathological spectrum. The age at onset of RYR1-related myopathies varies from infancy to adulthood. We report the identification of four RYR1 variants in two Italian families: one with myopathy and variants c.4003C>T (p.R1335C) and c.7035C>A (p.S2345R), and another with CCD and variants c.9293G>T (p.S3098I) and c.14771_14772insTAGACAGGGTGTTGCTCTGTTGCCCTTCTT (p.F4924_V4925insRQGVALLPFF). We demonstrate that, in patient-specific lymphoblastoid cells, the c.4003C>T (p.R1335C) variant is not expressed and the in-frame 30-nucleotide insertion variant is expressed at a low level. Moreover, Ca2+ release in response to the RyR1 agonist 4-chloro-m-cresol and to thapsigargin showed that the c.7035C>A (p.S2345R) variant causes depletion of S/ER Ca2+ stores and that the compound heterozygosity for variant c.9293G>T (p.S3098I) and the 30-nucleotide insertion increases RyR1-dependent Ca2+ release without affecting ER Ca2+ stores. In conclusion, we detected and functionally characterized disease-causing variants of the RyR1 channel in patient-specific lymphoblastoid cells. This paper is dedicated to the memory and contribution of Luigi Del Vecchio.

Functional characterization of ryanodine receptor (RYR1) sequence variants using a metabolic assay in immortalized B-lymphocytes.

Mutations in the RYR1 gene are linked to malignant hyperthermia (MH), central core disease and multi-minicore disease. We screened by DHPLC the RYR1 gene in 24 subjects for mutations, and characterized functional alterations caused by some RYR1 variants. Three novel sequence variants and twenty novel polymorphisms were identified. Immortalized lymphoblastoid cell lines from patients with RYR1 variants and from controls were stimulated with 4-chloro-m-cresol (4-CmC) and the rate of extracellular acidification was recorded. We demonstrate that the increased acidification rate of lymphoblastoid cells in response to 4-CmC is mainly due to RYR1 activation. Cells expressing RYR1 variants in the N-terminal and in the central region of the protein (p.Arg530His, p.Arg2163Pro, p.Asn2342Ser, p.Glu2371Gly and p.Arg2454His) displayed higher activity compared with controls; this could account for the MH-susceptible phenotype. Cell lines harboring RYR1(Cys4664Arg) were significantly less activated by 4-CmC. This result indicates that the p.Cys4664Arg variant causes a leaky channel and depletion of intracellular stores. The functional changes detected corroborate the variants analyzed as disease-causing alterations and the acidification rate measurements as a means to monitor Ca(2+)-induced metabolic changes in cells harboring mutant RYR1 channels.