Intracellular calcium regulates nonsense-mediated mRNA decay

Andrew Nickless, Erin Jackson, Jayne Marasa, Patrick Nugent, Robert W. Mercer, David Piwnica-Worms, Zhongsheng You

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    54 Scopus citations

    Abstract

    The nonsense-mediated mRNA decay (NMD) pathway selectively eliminates aberrant transcripts containing premature translation termination codons and regulates the levels of a number of physiological mRNAs. NMD modulates the clinical outcome of a variety of human diseases, including cancer and many genetic disorders, and may represent a target for therapeutic intervention. Here, we have developed a new multicolored bioluminescence-based reporter system that can specifically and effectively assay NMD in live human cells. Using this reporter system, we conducted a robust high-throughput small-molecule screen in human cells and, unpredictably, identified a group of cardiac glycosides, including ouabain and digoxin, as potent inhibitors of NMD. Cardiac glycoside-mediated effects on NMD are dependent on binding and inhibiting the sodium-potassium ATPase on the plasma membrane and subsequent elevation of intracellular calcium levels. Induction of calcium release from the endoplasmic reticulum also leads to inhibition of NMD. Thus, this study reveals intracellular calcium as a key regulator of NMD and has implications for exploiting NMD in the treatment of disease.

    Original languageEnglish (US)
    Pages (from-to)961-966
    Number of pages6
    JournalNature medicine
    Volume20
    Issue number8
    DOIs
    StatePublished - Aug 2014

    ASJC Scopus subject areas

    • General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology

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