Abstract
Congenital nephrogenic diabetes insipidus (CNDI) is a genetic disorder caused by mutations in arginine vasopressin receptor 2 (AVPR2) or aquaporin 2 genes, rendering collecting duct cells insensitive to the peptide hormone arginine vasopressin stimulation for water reabsorption. This study reports a first identified AVPR2 mutation in Taiwan and demonstrates our effort to understand the pathogenesis caused by applying computational structural analysis tools. The CNDI condition of an 8-month-old male patient was confirmed according to symptoms, family history, and DNA sequence analysis. The patient was identified to have a valine 279 deletion-mutation in the AVPR2 gene. Cellular experiments using mutant protein transfected cells revealed that mutated AVPR2 is expressed successfully in cells and localized on cell surfaces. We further analyzed the pathogenesis of the mutation at sub-molecular levels via long-term molecular dynamics (MD) simulations and structural analysis. The MD simulations showed while the structure of the extracellular ligand-binding domain remains unchanged, the mutation alters the direction of dynamic motion of AVPR2 transmembrane helix 6 toward the center of the G-protein binding site, obstructing the binding of G-protein, thus likely disabling downstream signaling. This study demonstrated that the computational approaches can be powerful tools for obtaining valuable information on the pathogenesis induced by mutations in G-protein-coupled receptors. These methods can also be helpful in providing clues on potential therapeutic strategies for CNDI.