Reversion mutation of cDNA CA8-204 minigene construct produces a truncated functional peptide that regulates calcium release in vitro and produces profound analgesia in vivo

Intracellular calcium is critical in orchestrating neuronal excitability and analgesia. Carbonic anhydrase-8 (CA8) regulates intracellular calcium signaling through allosteric inhibition of neuronal inositol trisphosphate receptor 1 (ITPR1) to produce profound analgesia. Recently, we reported the “G” allele at rs6471859 represents cis -eQTL regulating alternative splicing of a 1697 bp transcript (CA8-204 G ) with a retained intron, alternative polyadenylation site and a new stop codon producing a functional 26 kDa peptide with an extended exon 3. In this study we show the reversion mutation (G to C) at rs6471859 within the CA8-204 G expression vector also produced a stable 1697 bp transcript (CA8-204 C ) coding for a smaller peptide (~ 22 kDa) containing only the first three CA8 exons. Surprisingly, this peptide inhibited ITPR1 (pITPR1) activation, ITPR1-mediated calcium release in vitro; and produced profound analgesia in vivo. This is the first report showing CA8-204 C codes for a functional peptide sufficient to regulate calcium signaling and produce profound analgesia.