Hydrogen peroxide removes TRPM4 current desensitization conferring increased vulnerability to necrotic cell death

Abstract

Necrosis is associated with an increase in plasma membrane permeability, cell swelling, and loss of membrane integrity with subsequent release of cytoplasmic constituents. Severe redox imbalance by overproduction of reactive oxygen species is one of the main causes of necrosis. Here we demonstrate that H2O2 induces a sustained activity of TRPM4, a Ca 2+-activated, Ca2+-impermeant nonselective cation channel resulting in an increased vulnerability to cell death. In HEK 293 cells overexpressing TRPM4, H2O2 was found to eliminate in a dose-dependent manner TRPM4 desensitization. Site-directed mutagenesis experiments revealed that the Cys1093 residue is crucial for the H2O2-mediated loss of desensitization. In HeLa cells, which endogenously express TRPM4, H2O2 elicited necrosis as well as apoptosis. H2O2-mediated necrosis but not apoptosis was abolished by replacement of external Na+ ions with sucrose or the non-permeant cation N-methyl-D-glucamine and by knocking down TRPM4 with a shRNA d