MYH7B variants cause hypertrophic cardiomyopathy by activating the CaMK-signaling pathway

Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) is a common genetic disease, predominantly caused by mutations in cardiac sarcomere genes; however, whether MYH7B causes HCM is not known. In this study, 549 unrelated patients with HCM and 500 healthy-controls were screened using targeted sequencing and whole exome sequencing together. We observed seven variants in MYH7B causing HCM in 8/549 patients, which accounted for 1.46% of HCM cases. Of these seven variants, three likely pathogenic variants in MYH7B co-segregating with 5 HCM patients were identified in three HCM pedigrees without other HCM-associated variants. Myh7b knockout rats were generated and cardiac functions were detected by Millar pressure-volume catheterization and echocardiography. Spontaneous HCM phenotypes, cellular disarray and cardiac fibrosis were observed in both Myh7b +/− /Myh7b −/− rats. Transcriptome sequencing showed that calcium is the key mediator of cardiac hypertrophy in Myh7b knockout. Subsequent analysis confirmed over-activation of CaMK-signaling pathway in cardiomyocytes of Myh7b −/− rats. Furthermore, MYH7B expression in human and rat hearts was identified and microRNA-208a and microRNA-499 levels are unchanged in HCM patients and Myh7b + /− /Myh7b −/− rats. This study is the first to identifyMYH7B variants as cause of HCM, which account for 1.46% of pathogenesisin HCM patients. Activation of CaMK-signaling pathway may be involved in its pathophysiology.