Discovery of (2-aminophenyl)methanol as a new molecular chaperone that rescues the localization of P123S mutant pendrin stably expressed in HEK293 cells

Abstract

Pendred syndrome is the most common form of syndromic deafness. It is associated with a mutation in the SLC26A4 gene that encodes pendrin, which is thought to maintain the ion concentration of endolymph in the inner ear most likely by acting as a chloride/bicarbonate transporter. Mutations in the SLC26A4 gene are responsible for sensorineural hearing loss. In this study, we established a stable HEK293 cell line expressing P123S mutant pendrin and developed screening methods for compounds that show pharmacological chaperone activity by image analysis using CellInsight™. Morphological analysis of stained cells in each well of 96-well plates yielded six compounds in the compound library. Furthermore, fluorescence intensity analysis of the intracellular localization of P123S mutant pendrin in HEK293 cells using FLUOVIEW™ and cytotoxicity experiments revealed that (2-aminophenyl)methanol 8 is the most promising molecular chaperone to rescue P123S mutant pendrin: the plasma membrane (M)/cytoplasm (C) ratios are 1.5 and 0.9 at the concentrations of 0.3 and 0.1mM, respectively, and a sustained effect was observed 12h after removal of the compound from the cell medium. Because the M/C ratio of salicylate, which was previously discovered as a molecular chaperone of P123S mutant pendrin, was approximately 1 at 10mM concentration and a sustained effect was not observed even at 6h, (2-aminophenyl)methanol 8 was 100 times more potent and exhibited a longer sustained effect than salicylate. These findings suggest that (2-aminophenyl)methanol 8 is an attractive candidate for therapeutic agent for Pendred syndrome patients.