Abstract 433: Examination of Factors Affecting the Association of PCSK9 With Low-Density Lipoprotein Particles in Human Plasma
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Rationale: We have previously shown that a substantial proportion of plasma PCSK9 (30-40%) is associated with LDL particles in normolipidemic subjects. Cellular assays show that LDL-bound PCSK9 is less active for binding to cell surface LDLRs. Therefore, the ability of circulating PCSK9 to direct LDLR degradation in liver could be regulated by plasma LDL levels. In addition, LDL subspecies may have altered abilities in binding PCSK9. We have mapped the LDL binding region to a short stretch of amino acids (aa 31-52) in the PCSK9 prodomain. It is unknown whether a common loss-of-function PCSK9 mutation (R46L) within this region affects LDL binding. Objective: To determine whether plasma PCSK9 distribution (LDL-bound versus unbound) is affected in hypercholesterolemic subjects. To further characterize the interaction of PCSK9 and LDL, we investigated the interaction of PCSK9 with two subspecies of LDL - large, buoyant LDL (LBLDL; d=1.019-1.044 g/ml) and small, dense LDL (SDLDL; d=1.044-1.063 g/ml). Additionally, we investigated the effect of the R46L PCSK9 mutation on the LDL binding affinity of PCSK9. Methods and Results: We used flotation ultracentrifugation in Optiprep density gradients to fractionate human plasma samples followed by immunoprecipitation and western blot to quantify PCSK9 distribution in LDL and non-LDL fractions. In a pilot study, the proportion of total plasma PCSK9 in the LDL fraction was increased from 38±5% to 57±3% (N=6) in hypercholesterolemic subjects (LDL>4.9mM, TG<2.3mM) versus normal controls (LDL<3 mM, TG<2.3mM). Saturation binding assays showed that SDLDL bound PCSK9 with lower affinity (Kd = 361.9 nM) than LDLDL (Kd = 263.9 nM). Competition binding assays determined that recombinant purified PCSK9-R46L secreted from HEK293 cells did not bind to isolated LDL with significantly altered affinity compared to wild-type PCSK9. Conclusion: Our preliminary results indicate that plasma PCSK9 distribution is altered in hypercholesterolemia, with an increased proportion of total PCSK9 bound to LDL particles. Our in vitro results suggest that circulating small, dense LDL may bind more poorly to PCSK9 than larger LDL subspecies.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.003 | 0.001 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".