scholarly journals The finger 2 tip loop of Activin A is required for the formation of its non-signaling complex with ACVR1 and type II Bone Morphogenetic Protein receptors

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Senem Aykul ◽  
Richard A. Corpina ◽  
Erich J. Goebel ◽  
Camille J. Cunanan ◽  
Alexandra Dimitriou ◽  
...  

AbstractActivin A functions in BMP signaling in two ways: it either engages ACVR1B to activate Smad2/3 signaling or binds ACVR1 to form a non-signaling complex (NSC). Although the former property has been studied extensively, the roles of the NSC remain unexplored. The genetic disorder fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva (FOP) provides a unique window into ACVR1/Activin A signaling because in that disease Activin can either signal through FOP-mutant ACVR1 or form NSCs with wild type ACVR1. To explore the role of the NSC, we generated ‘agonist-only’ Activin A muteins that activate ACVR1B but cannot form the NSC with ACVR1. Using one of these muteins we demonstrate that failure to form the NSC in FOP results in more severe disease pathology. These results provide the first evidence for a biological role for the NSC in vivo and pave the way for further exploration of the NSC’s physiological role in corresponding knock-in mice.Impact StatementThe non-signaling complex formed by Activin A and ACVR1 is operant in vivo and is required to temper the degree of heterotopic ossification in the genetic disorder fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva.

eLife ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Senem Aykul ◽  
Richard A Corpina ◽  
Erich J Goebel ◽  
Camille J Cunanan ◽  
Alexandra Dimitriou ◽  
...  

Activin A functions in BMP signaling in two ways: it either engages ACVR1B to activate Smad2/3 signaling or binds ACVR1 to form a non-signaling complex (NSC). Although the former property has been studied extensively, the roles of the NSC remain unexplored. The genetic disorder fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva (FOP) provides a unique window into ACVR1/Activin A signaling because in that disease Activin can either signal through FOP-mutant ACVR1 or form NSCs with wild-type ACVR1. To explore the role of the NSC, we generated ‘agonist-only’ Activin A muteins that activate ACVR1B but cannot form the NSC with ACVR1. Using one of these muteins, we demonstrate that failure to form the NSC in FOP results in more severe disease pathology. These results provide the first evidence for a biological role for the NSC in vivo and pave the way for further exploration of the NSC’s physiological role in corresponding knock-in mice.


2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (18) ◽  
pp. 6498
Author(s):  
Chen Xie ◽  
Wenjuan Jiang ◽  
Jerome J. Lacroix ◽  
Yun Luo ◽  
Jijun Hao

Activins transduce the TGF-β pathway through a heteromeric signaling complex consisting of type I and type II receptors, and activins also inhibit bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) signaling mediated by type I receptor ALK2. Recent studies indicated that activin A cross-activates the BMP pathway through ALK2R206H, a mutation associated with Fibrodysplasia Ossificans Progressiva (FOP). How activin A inhibits ALK2WT-mediated BMP signaling but activates ALK2R206H-mediated BMP signaling is not well understood, and here we offer some insights into its molecular mechanism. We first demonstrated that among four BMP type I receptors, ALK2 is the only subtype able to mediate the activin A-induced BMP signaling upon the dissociation of FKBP12. We further showed that BMP4 does not cross-signal TGF-β pathway upon FKBP12 inhibition. In addition, although the roles of type II receptors in the ligand-independent BMP signaling activated by FOP-associated mutant ALK2 have been reported, their roles in activin A-induced BMP signaling remains unclear. We demonstrated in this study that the known type II BMP receptors contribute to activin A-induced BMP signaling through their kinase activity. Together, the current study provided important mechanistic insights at the molecular level into further understanding physiological and pathophysiological BMP signaling.


2019 ◽  
Vol 39 (8) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hui Lin ◽  
Fuli Shi ◽  
Jiayu Gao ◽  
Ping Hua

Abstract Heterotopic ossification (HO) is the aberrant formation of mature, lamellar bone in nonosseous tissue. Fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva (FOP) is a rare and devastating genetic disorder that causes progressive HO in the ligaments, tendons, and muscles throughout the body. FOP is attributed to an autosomal mutation in activin receptor-like kinase 2 (ALK2), a bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) type I receptor. Initial studies show that mutant ALK2 drives HO by constitutively activating the BMP signaling pathway. Recently, mutant ALK2 has been shown to transduce Smad1/5 signaling and enhance chondrogenesis, calcification in response to Activin A, which normally signals through Smad2/3 and inhibits BMP signaling pathway. Furthermore, Activin A induces heterotopic bone formation via mutant ALK2, while inhibition of Activin A blocks spontaneous and trauma-induced HO. In this manuscript, we describe the molecular mechanism of the causative gene ALK2 in FOP, mainly focusing on the prominent role of Activin A in HO. It reveals a potential strategy for prevention and treatment of FOP by inhibition of Activin A. Further studies are needed to explore the cellular and molecular mechanisms of Activin A in FOP in more detail.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Senem Aykul ◽  
Lily Huang ◽  
Lili Wang ◽  
Nanditha Das ◽  
Sandra Reisman ◽  
...  

Fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva (FOP) is a rare genetic disorder whose most debilitating pathology is progressive and cumulative heterotopic ossification (HO) of skeletal muscles, ligaments, tendons, and fascia. FOP is caused by amino acid-altering mutations in ACVR1, a type I BMP receptor. The mutations occur in the region encoding the intracellular domain of ACVR1 and bestow FOP-mutant ACVR1 with the neofuction of recognizing Activin A as an agonistic ligand. (In contrast, Activin A antagonizes BMP signaling from wild type ACVR1.) This neofuction is required for HO in FOP as inhibition of Activin A stops the initiation and progression of heterotopic bone lesions in FOP. These results unequivocally demonstrated that HO in FOP is dependent on activation of FOP-mutant ACVR1 by ligand and set the stage to explore ACVR1-blocking antibodies as an additional potential therapeutic for FOP. Surprisingly, ACVR1 antibodies stimulate - rather than inhibit - HO and induce Smad1/5/8 phosphorylation of FOP-mutant ACVR1. This property is restricted to FOP-mutant ACVR1, as signaling by wild type ACVR1 is inhibited by these antibodies, as is trauma-induced HO. These results uncover yet an additional novel property of FOP-mutant ACVR1 and indicate that anti-ACVR1 antibodies should not be considered as a therapeutic strategy for FOP


2015 ◽  
Vol 112 (50) ◽  
pp. 15438-15443 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kyosuke Hino ◽  
Makoto Ikeya ◽  
Kazuhiko Horigome ◽  
Yoshihisa Matsumoto ◽  
Hayao Ebise ◽  
...  

Fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva (FOP) is a rare genetic disease characterized by extraskeletal bone formation through endochondral ossification. FOP patients harbor point mutations in ACVR1 (also known as ALK2), a type I receptor for bone morphogenetic protein (BMP). Two mechanisms of mutated ACVR1 (FOP-ACVR1) have been proposed: ligand-independent constitutive activity and ligand-dependent hyperactivity in BMP signaling. Here, by using FOP patient-derived induced pluripotent stem cells (FOP-iPSCs), we report a third mechanism, where FOP-ACVR1 abnormally transduces BMP signaling in response to Activin-A, a molecule that normally transduces TGF-β signaling but not BMP signaling. Activin-A enhanced the chondrogenesis of induced mesenchymal stromal cells derived from FOP-iPSCs (FOP-iMSCs) via aberrant activation of BMP signaling in addition to the normal activation of TGF-β signaling in vitro, and induced endochondral ossification of FOP-iMSCs in vivo. These results uncover a novel mechanism of extraskeletal bone formation in FOP and provide a potential new therapeutic strategy for FOP.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
John B Lees-Shepard ◽  
Sean J Stoessel ◽  
Julian Chandler ◽  
Keith Bouchard ◽  
Patricia Bento ◽  
...  

Fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva (FOP) is a rare genetic disease characterized by progressive and catastrophic heterotopic ossification (HO) of skeletal muscle and associated soft tissues. FOP is caused by dominantly acting mutations in the bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) type I receptor, ACVR1 (also known as ALK2), the most prevalent of which is an arginine to histidine substitution [ACVR1(R206H)] in the glycine-serine rich intracellular domain of the receptor. A fundamental pathological consequence of FOP-causing ACVR1 receptor mutations is to enable activin A to initiate canonical BMP signaling in responsive progenitors, which drives skeletogenic commitment and HO. With the clear targets of activin A and ACVR1 identified, development of antibody therapeutics to prevent ligand-receptor interactions is an interventional approach currently being explored. Here, we developed a monoclonal blocking antibody (JAB0505) to the extracellular domain of ACVR1 and tested its ability to inhibit HO in established FOP mouse models. JAB0505 inhibited BMP-dependent gene expression in wild-type and ACVR1(R206H)-overexpressing cell lines. Strikingly, however, JAB0505 treatment markedly exacerbated injury-induced HO in two independent FOP mouse models in which ACVR1(R206H) was either broadly expressed, or more selectively expressed in fibro/adipogenic progenitors (FAPs). JAB0505 drove HO even under conditions of activin A inhibition, indicating that JAB0505 has receptor agonist activity. JAB0505-treated mice exhibited multiple, distinct foci of heterotopic lesions, suggesting an atypically broad anatomical domain of FAP recruitment to endochondral ossification. In addition, skeletogenic differentiation was both delayed and prolonged, and this was accompanied by dysregulation of FAP population growth. Collectively, alterations in the growth and differentiative properties of FAPs and FAP-derived skeletal cells are implicated in the aggravated HO phenotype. These data raise serious safety and efficacy concerns for the use of anti-ACVR1 antibodies to treat FOP patients.


2017 ◽  
Vol 185 ◽  
pp. 89-96 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pablo Alberto Valdecantos ◽  
Rocío del Carmen Bravo Miana ◽  
Elina Vanesa García ◽  
Daniela Celeste García ◽  
Mariela Roldán-Olarte ◽  
...  

Development ◽  
1999 ◽  
Vol 126 (18) ◽  
pp. 4005-4015 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Weaver ◽  
J.M. Yingling ◽  
N.R. Dunn ◽  
S. Bellusci ◽  
B.L. Hogan

In the mature mouse lung, the proximal-distal (P-D) axis is delineated by two distinct epithelial subpopulations: the proximal bronchiolar epithelium and the distal respiratory epithelium. Little is known about the signaling molecules that pattern the lung along the P-D axis. One candidate is Bone Morphogenetic Protein 4 (Bmp4), which is expressed in a dynamic pattern in the epithelial cells in the tips of growing lung buds. Previous studies in which Bmp4 was overexpressed in the lung endoderm (Bellusci, S., Henderson, R., Winnier, G., Oikawa, T. and Hogan, B. L. M. (1996) Development 122, 1693–1702) suggested that this factor plays an important role in lung morphogenesis. To further investigate this question, two complementary approaches were utilized to inhibit Bmp signaling in vivo. The Bmp antagonist Xnoggin and, independently, a dominant negative Bmp receptor (dnAlk6), were overexpressed using the surfactant protein C (Sp-C) promoter/enhancer. Inhibiting Bmp signaling results in a severe reduction in distal epithelial cell types and a concurrent increase in proximal cell types, as indicated by morphology and expression of marker genes, including the proximally expressed hepatocyte nuclear factor/forkhead homologue 4 (Hfh4) and Clara cell marker CC10, and the distal marker Sp-C. In addition, electron microscopy demonstrates the presence of ciliated cells, a proximal cell type, in the most peripheral regions of the transgenic lungs. We propose a model in which Bmp4 is a component of an apical signaling center controlling P-D patterning. Endodermal cells at the periphery of the lung, which are exposed to high levels of Bmp4, maintain or adopt a distal character, while cells receiving little or no Bmp4 signal initiate a proximal differentiation program.


2015 ◽  
Vol 35 (12) ◽  
pp. 2165-2172 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathon Marks-Bluth ◽  
Anchit Khanna ◽  
Vashe Chandrakanthan ◽  
Julie Thoms ◽  
Thomas Bee ◽  
...  

The bone morphogenetic protein (BMP)/SMAD signaling pathway is a critical regulator of angiogenic sprouting and is involved in vascular development in the embryo. SMAD1 and SMAD5, the core mediators of BMP signaling, are vital for this activity, yet little is known about their transcriptional regulation in endothelial cells. Here, we have integrated multispecies sequence conservation, tissue-specific chromatin,in vitroreporter assay, andin vivotransgenic data to identify and validateSmad1+63 and theSmad5promoter as tissue-specificcis-regulatory elements that are active in the developing endothelium. The activity of these elements in the endothelium was dependent on highly conserved ETS, GATA, and E-box motifs, and chromatin immunoprecipitation showed high levels of enrichment of FLI1, GATA2, and SCL at these sites in endothelial cell lines and E11 dorsal aortasin vivo. Knockdown of FLI1 and GATA2 but not SCL reduced the expression of SMAD1 and SMAD5 in endothelial cellsin vitro. In contrast, CD31+cKit−endothelial cells harvested from embryonic day 9 (E9) aorta-gonad-mesonephros (AGM) regions of GATA2 null embryos showed reducedSmad1but notSmad5transcript levels. This is suggestive of a degree ofin vivoselection where, in the case of reduced SMAD1 levels, endothelial cells with more robust SMAD5 expression have a selective advantage.


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