Carabin protects against cardiac hypertrophy by blocking calcineurin, Ras, and Ca2+/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II signaling.

BACKGROUND: Cardiac hypertrophy is an early hallmark during the clinical course of heart failure and is regulated by various signaling pathways. However, the molecular mechanisms that negatively regulate these signal transduction pathways remain poorly understood. METHODS AND RESULTS: Here, we characterized Carabin, a protein expressed in cardiomyocytes that was downregulated in cardiac hypertrophy and human heart failure. Four weeks after transverse aortic constriction, Carabin-deficient (Carabin(-/-)) mice developed exaggerated cardiac hypertrophy and displayed a strong decrease in fractional shortening (14.6±1.6% versus 27.6±1.4% in wild type plus transverse aortic constriction mice; P<0.0001). Conversely, compensation of Carabin loss through a cardiotropic adeno-associated viral vector encoding Carabin prevented transverse aortic constriction-induced cardiac hypertrophy with preserved fractional shortening (39.9±1.2% versus 25.9±2.6% in control plus transverse aortic constriction mice; P<0.0001). Carabin also conferred protection against adrenergic receptor-induced hypertrophy in isolated cardiomyocytes. Mechanistically, Carabin carries out a tripartite suppressive function. Indeed, Carabin, through its calcineurin-interacting site and Ras/Rab GTPase-activating protein domain, functions as an endogenous inhibitor of calcineurin and Ras/extracellular signal-regulated kinase prohypertrophic signaling. Moreover, Carabin reduced Ca(2+)/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II activation and prevented nuclear export of histone deacetylase 4 after adrenergic stimulation or myocardial pressure overload. Finally, we showed that Carabin Ras-GTPase-activating protein domain and calcineurin-interacting domain were both involved in the antihypertrophic action of Carabin. CONCLUSIONS: Our study identifies Carabin as a negative regulator of key prohypertrophic signaling molecules, calcineurin, Ras, and Ca(2+)/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II and implicates Carabin in the development of cardiac hypertrophy and failure.

Specific interactions between Epac1, ß-arrestin2 and PDE4D5 regulate ß-adrenergic receptor subtype differential effects on cardiac hypertrophic signaling.

ß1 and ß2 adrenergic receptors (ßARs) are highly homologous but fulfill distinct physiological and pathophysiological roles. Here we show that both ßAR subtypes activate the cAMP-binding protein Epac1, but they differentially affect its signaling. The distinct effects of ßARs on Epac1 downstream effectors, the small G proteins Rap1 and H-Ras, involve different modes of interaction of Epac1 with the scaffolding protein ß-arrestin2 and the cAMP-specific phosphodiesterase (PDE) variant PDE4D5. We found that ß-arrestin2 acts as a scaffold for Epac1 and is necessary for Epac1 coupling to H-Ras. Accordingly, knockdown of ß-arrestin2 prevented Epac1-induced histone deacetylase 4 (HDAC4) nuclear export and cardiac myocyte hypertrophy upon ß1AR activation. Moreover, Epac1 competed with PDE4D5 for interaction with ß-arrestin2 following ß2AR activation. Dissociation of the PDE4D5-ß-arrestin2 complex allowed the recruitment of Epac1 to ß2AR and induced a switch from ß2AR non-hypertrophic signaling to a ß1AR-like pro-hypertrophic signaling cascade. These findings have implications for understanding the molecular basis of cardiac myocyte remodeling and other cellular processes in which ßAR subtypes exert opposing effects.