A titin missense variant drives atrial electrical remodeling and is associated with atrial fibrillation.

Abstract

Rare and common genetic variants contribute to the risk of atrial fibrillation (AF). Although ion channels were among the first AF candidate genes identified, rare loss-of-function variants in structural genes, such as <i>TTN</i>, have also been implicated in AF pathogenesis, partly through the development of atrial myopathy; however, the underlying mechanisms are poorly understood. While <i>TTN</i> truncating variants (<i>TTN</i>tvs) have been causally linked to arrhythmia and cardiomyopathy syndromes, the role of missense variants (mvs) remains unclear. We show that rare <i>TTNmvs</i> are associated with worse clinical outcomes in a single-center ethnic minority clinical cohort and uncover a pathogenic mechanism by which the T32756I variant drives AF. Modeling the <i>TTN</i>-T32756I variant using human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived atrial cardiomyocytes (iPSC-aCMs) revealed that the mutant cells display aberrant contractility, increased activity of a cardiac potassium channel (KCNQ1, Kv7.1), and dysregulated calcium homeostasis without compromising the sarcomeric integrity of the atrial cardiomyocytes. We also show that a titin-binding protein, the Four-and-a-Half Lim domains 2 (FHL2), has increased binding with KCNQ1 and its modulatory subunit KCNE1 in the <i>TTN-</i>T32756I-iPSC-aCMs, enhancing the slow delayed rectifier potassium current (<i>I</i>_ks). Suppression of FHL2 in mutant iPSC-aCMs normalized the <i>I</i>_ks, supporting FHL2 as an <i>I</i>_ks modulator. Our findings demonstrate that a single amino acid substitution in titin not only impairs its function but also remodels ion channels, contributing to AF. These findings underscore the importance of high-throughput screening to assess the pathogenicity of <i>TTN</i>mvs and establish a mechanistic connection between titin, potassium ion channels, and sarcomeric proteins, which may represent a novel therapeutic target.