Cyclophilin-D (CypD) is a well-known regulator of the mitochondrial permeability transition pore (PTP), the main effector of cardiac ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury characterized by oxidative stress and calcium overload. However, the mechanism by which CypD activates PTP is poorly understood. Cysteine 202 of CypD (C202) is highly conserved across species and can undergo redox-sensitive post-translational modifications, such as S-nitrosylation and oxidation. To study the importance of C202, we developed a knock-in mouse model using CRISPR where CypD-C202 was mutated to a serine (C202S). Hearts from these mice are protected against I/R injury. We found C202 to be abundantly S-palmitoylated under baseline conditions while C202 was de-palmitoylated during ischemia in WT hearts. To further investigate the mechanism of de-palmitoylation during ischemia, we considered the increase of matrix calcium, oxidative stress and uncoupling of ATP synthesis from the electron transport chain. We tested the effects of these conditions on the palmitoylation of CypD in isolated cardiac mitochondria. The palmitoylation of CypD was assessed using a resin-assisted capture (Acyl-RAC). We report that oxidative stress (phenylarsenide) and uncoupling (CCCP) had no effect on CypD palmitoylation (p>0.05, n=3 and n=7 respectively). However, calcium overload led to de-palmitoylation of CypD to the level observed at the end ischemia (1±0.10 vs 0.63±0.09, p=0.012, n=9). To further test the hypothesis that calcium regulates S-palmitoylation of CypD we measured S-palmitoylation of CypD in non-perfused heart lysates from global germline mitochondrial calcium uniporter knock-out mice (MCU-KO), which have reduced mitochondrial calcium and we found an increase in S-palmitoylation of CypD (WT 1±0.04 vs MCU-KO 1.603±0.11, p<0.001, n=6). The data are consistent with the hypothesis that C202 is important for the CypD mediated activation of PTP. Ischemia leads to increased matrix calcium which in turn promotes the de-palmitoylation of CypD on C202. The now free C202 can further be oxidized during reperfusion leading to the activation of PTP. Thus, S-palmitoylation and oxidation of CypD-C202 possibly target CypD to the PTP, making them potent regulators of cardiac I/R injury.
