Downsloping high-frequency hearing loss due to inner ear tricellular tight junction disruption by a novel ILDR1 mutation in the Ig-like domain

PLoS One. 2015 Feb 10;10(2):e0116931. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0116931. eCollection 2015.

Abstract

The immunoglobulin (Ig)-like domain containing receptor 1 (ILDR1) gene encodes angulin-2/ILDR1, a recently discovered tight junction protein, which forms tricellular tight junction (tTJ) structures with tricellulin and lipolysis-stimulated lipoprotein receptor (LSR) at tricellular contacts (TCs) in the inner ear. Previously reported recessive mutations within ILDR1 have been shown to cause severe to profound nonsyndromic sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL), DFNB42. Whole-exome sequencing of a Korean multiplex family segregating partial deafness identified a novel homozygous ILDR1 variant (p.P69H) within the Ig-like domain. To address the pathogenicity of p.P69H, the angulin-2/ILDR1 p.P69H variant protein, along with the previously reported pathogenic ILDR1 mutations, was expressed in angulin-1/LSR knockdown epithelial cells. Interestingly, partial mislocalization of the p.P69H variant protein and tricellulin at TCs was observed, in contrast to a severe mislocalization and complete failure of tricellulin recruitment of the other reported ILDR1 mutations. Additionally, three-dimensional protein modeling revealed that angulin-2/ILDR1 contributed to tTJ by forming a homo-trimer structure through its Ig-like domain, and the p.P69H variant was predicted to disturb homo-trimer formation. In this study, we propose a possible role of angulin-2/ILDR1 in tTJ formation in the inner ear and a wider audiologic phenotypic spectrum of DFNB42 caused by mutations within ILDR1.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Alleles
  • Amino Acid Sequence
  • Asian People
  • Ear, Inner / metabolism*
  • Ear, Inner / pathology
  • Hearing Loss, High-Frequency / genetics*
  • Hearing Loss, Sensorineural / genetics
  • Humans
  • Models, Theoretical
  • Molecular Sequence Data
  • Mutation*
  • Pedigree
  • Protein Multimerization / genetics
  • Protein Structure, Tertiary / genetics
  • Receptors, Cell Surface / genetics*
  • Tight Junctions / genetics
  • Tight Junctions / metabolism*

Substances

  • ILDR1 protein, human
  • Receptors, Cell Surface

Supplementary concepts

  • Deafness, Autosomal Recessive 42

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the Korea Healthcare Technology R&D Project, Ministry for Health, Welfare and Family Affairs, Republic of Korea, Grant HI11C13310000 (previously A111377 to B. Y. Choi), the Seoul National University Bundang Hospital Research Fund 14-2014-033 (to B.Y. Choi), the Korean Health Technology R&D Project, Ministry of health and Welfare, Republic of Korea (Hl12C0014) and the Funding Program for Next Generation World Leading Researchers (NEXT Program) from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science initiated by the Council for Science and Technology Policy [Grand number LS084] (to M. Furuse). T. Higashi is a research fellow of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.