Endothelial miR-199a-3p regulating cell adhesion molecules by targeting mTOR signaling during inflammation

Inflammation and coronary microvascular disease: relationship, mechanism and treatment

Coronary microvascular disease (CMVD) is common in patients with cardiovascular risk factors and is linked to an elevated risk of adverse cardiovascular events. Although modern medicine has made significant strides in researching CMVD, we still lack a comprehensive understanding of its pathophysiological mechanisms due to its complex and somewhat cryptic etiology. This greatly impedes the clinical diagnosis and treatment of CMVD. The primary pathological mechanisms of CMVD are structural abnormalities and/or dysfunction of coronary microvascular endothelial cells. The development of CMVD may also involve a variety of inflammatory factors through the endothelial cell injury pathway. This paper first reviews the correlation between the inflammatory response and CMVD, then summarizes the possible mechanisms of inflammatory response in CMVD, and finally categorizes the drugs used to treat CMVD based on their effect on the inflammatory response. We hope that this paper draws attention to CMVD and provides novel ideas for potential therapeutic strategies based on the inflammatory response.

LncRNA MALAT1 suppresses monocyte-endothelial cell interactions by targeting miR-30b-5p and enhancing ATG5-mediated autophagy

Background

Monocyte-endothelial cell (EC) interactions are one of the earliest events in the development of atherosclerosis and play a crucial role in atherosclerotic plaque formation. Although attempts have been made to modulate this interaction, the underlying molecular signalling mechanisms remain unclear. This study aimed to investigate the role of long non-coding RNA MALAT1 in monocyte-EC interactions.

Methods

The expression of MALAT1, ICAM-1, VCAM-1, P-selectin, CCL2 and CXCL1 was evaluated in ApoE-/- mouse aortic tissues and inflamed human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs). The regulatory impact of MALAT1 on cell adhesion molecules, monocyte-EC adhesion, and autophagy was assessed. The interactions between MALAT1 and microRNAs (miRNAs) were evaluated using dual-luciferase reporter and RNA pull-down assays.

Results

MALAT1 expression decreased in ApoE-/- mouse aortic tissues and inflammatory HUVECs. MALAT1 overexpression suppressed the expression of ICAM-1, VCAM-1 and CXCL1, and reduced the migration and adhesion of monocytes to ECs. Inhibition of MALAT1 promoted cell adhesion molecule expression and monocyte-EC interactions. Mechanistically, MALAT1 binds directly to miR-30b-5p and decreases its effective expression by functioning as an endogenous sponge, thereby increasing the expression of autophagy-related gene 5 (ATG5) and stimulates endothelial autophagy.

Conclusions

Our findings suggest that MALAT1 suppresses monocyte-EC interactions by targeting miR-30b-5p and enhancing ATG5-mediated endothelial autophagy. These data imply that MALAT1 may play a protective role at the early stages of the atherosclerotic process.

SNHG12/NFYC-AS1 Acted as the Sponge for hsa-miR-199a-5p to Promote the Expression of S100A8/S100A7/XDH and was Involved in the Progression of Diabetic Foot Ulcers

Traditional Chinese medicine has been used to treat diabetic foot ulcer (DFU) for a long time. However, the underlying mechanism of Radix arnebiae seu lithospermi ointment (RAS-ointment) has not been revealed. Effects of RAS-ointment treatment were observed in DFU patients. The endogenous competitive RNA mechanism was constructed based on micro-array sequencing and bioinformatics analysis. RT-PCR was used to detected the expression of genes in DFU ulcerated skins and non-ulcerated skins. Dual luciferase and RT-PCR experiments were used to investigate the endogenous competitive RNA mechanism. Based on micro-array sequencing and bioinformatics analysis, we found that SNHG12/NFYC-AS1, hsa-miR-199a-5p and S100A8/S100A7/XDH might form an endogenous competitive RNA mechanism. RT-PCR assay shown that SNHG12, NFYC-AS1, S100A8, S100A7 and XDH were significantly up-regulated, while hsa-miR-199a-5p was significantly down-regulated in DFU ulcerated skins (N = 10) compared with non-ulcerated skins (N = 10). Dual luciferase and RT-PCR experiments showed that SNHG12 or NFYC-AS1 up-regulated the expression of S100A8, S100A7 and XDH by inhibiting hsa-miR-199a-5p in a direct binding way. After 35 days of RAS-ointment treatment, the wound healing of DFU patients was substantially improved and the expression of S100A7 and XDH were reduced expression in DFU patients. In addition, the monomer composition of RAS-ointment, 49070_FLUKA or auraptenol inhibited the expression of S100A7 and XDH in Te317.sk cells. In conclusion, RAS-ointment may be used as an adjunctive therapy for DFU patients.

Engineering exosomes derived from subcutaneous fat MSCs specially promote cartilage repair as miR-199a-3p delivery vehicles in Osteoarthritis

Osteoarthritis (OA) is a degenerative joint disease involving cartilage. Exosomes derived from Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) therapy improves articular cartilage repair, but subcutaneous fat (SC) stromal cells derived exosomes (MSCsSC-Exos), especially engineering MSCsSC-Exos for drug delivery have been rarely reported in OA therapy. This objective of this study was to clarify the underlying mechanism of MSCsSC-Exos on cartilage repair and therapy of engineering MSCsSC-Exos for drug delivery in OA. MSCsSC-Exos could ameliorate the pathological severity degree of cartilage via miR-199a-3p, a novel molecular highly enriched in MSCsSC-Exos, which could mediate the mTOR-autophagy pathway in OA rat model. Intra-articular injection of antagomiR-199a-3p dramatically attenuated the protective effect of MSCsSC-Exos-mediated on articular cartilage in vivo. Furthermore, to achieve the superior therapeutic effects of MSCsSC-Exos on injured cartilage, engineering exosomes derived from MSCsSC as the chondrocyte-targeting miR-199a-3p delivery vehicles were investigated in vitro and in vivo. The chondrocyte-binding peptide (CAP) binding MSCsSC-Exos could particularly deliver miR-199a-3p into the chondrocytes in vitro and into deep articular tissues in vivo, then exert the excellent protective effect on injured cartilage in DMM-induced OA mice. As it is feasible to obtain human subcutaneous fat from healthy donors by liposuction operation in clinic, meanwhile engineering MSCsSC-Exos to realize targeted delivery of miR-199a-3p into chondrocytes exerted excellent therapeutic effects in OA animal model in vivo. Through combining MSCsSC-Exos therapy and miRNA therapy via an engineering approach, we develop an efficient MSCsSC-Exos-based strategy for OA therapy and promote the application of targeted-MSCsSC-Exos for drug delivery in the future.

A Bioinformatic Approach Based on Systems Biology to Determine the Effects of SARS-CoV-2 Infection in Patients with Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy

Recently, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the causative agent of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), has infected millions of individuals worldwide. While COVID-19 generally affects the lungs, it also damages other organs, including those of the cardiovascular system. Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) is a common genetic cardiovascular disorder. Studies have shown that HCM patients with COVID-19 have a higher mortality rate; however, the reason for this phenomenon is not yet elucidated. Herein, we conducted transcriptomic analyses to identify shared biomarkers between HCM and COVID-19 to bridge this knowledge gap. Differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were obtained using the Gene Expression Omnibus ribonucleic acid (RNA) sequencing datasets, GSE147507 and GSE89714, to identify shared pathways and potential drug candidates. We discovered 30 DEGs that were common between these two datasets. Using a combination of statistical and biological tools, protein-protein interactions were constructed in response to these findings to support hub genes and modules. We discovered that HCM is linked to COVID-19 progression based on a functional analysis under ontology terms. Based on the DEGs identified from the datasets, a coregulatory network of transcription factors, genes, proteins, and microRNAs was also discovered. Lastly, our research suggests that the potential drugs we identified might be helpful for COVID-19 therapy.