How the heart adapts to the body's needs

Characterisation of the cardiac palmitoyl transferase DHHC5 (Miss Fiona Plain)

The heart is an adaptable organ, having in-built reversible mechanisms that enable it to meet the needs of the body. One of these mechanisms involves changing the chemical composition of some of its existing proteins – which is a much quicker way to change the heart’s pumping activity than making entirely new proteins. Protein palmitoylation is a reversible process, which changes the way certain proteins in the heart behave. We know that many key heart proteins are palmitoylated and that an enzyme called DHHC5 is involved, but we know very little about what effects this has, and how the process is controlled in individual heart cells. Scientists believe DHHC5 is particularly important because protein palmitoylation caused by DHHC5 is responsible for some of the injury that happens to the heart cells during a heart attack. Dr William Fuller from the University of Dundee has received a PhD studentship to train a young researcher who will investigate how DHHC5 works and how it controls protein palmitoylation in the heart. The successful applicant will investigate which proteins DHHC5 interacts with and ‘talks to’ in heart muscle, and how these molecular communication events influence the palmitoylation process and the activity of the heart, in both healthy and diseased individuals. This research will give us a better understanding of how DHHC5 works, and may reveal new or better ways to treat heart attacks.