Project description:Renal disease is a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease. BMP2 and its downstream effectors are strong implicators of pathological calcificatoin. We profiled miRNAs from Klotho mutant mice and from health mice to determine any potential biomarkers for predicting the progression of pathological calcification through targeting of BMP2 and its downstream effectors.
Project description:Engineered exosomes reprogrammed Gli1+ cells to promote SMC reconstruction and inhibit calcification in TEVBs and autologous pathological vessels.
Project description:Vascular calcification is a common and life-threatening complication in patients with chronic kidney disease, in which osteogenic differentiation of vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) plays an essential role. Paraspeckle protein NONO is a multifunctional protein involved in many nuclear biological processes but its role in vascular calcification and osteogenic differentiation of VSMCs remains unclear.By RNA sequencing analysis in primary mouse VSMCs with or without NONO knockout, we observed significant changes of genes important in regulating vascular function and osteogenic differentiation of VSMCs.
Project description:Despite the high prevalence of age-dependent intervertebral disc calcification, there is a glaring lack of treatment options for this debilitating pathology. Here, we investigate the efficacy of long-term oral K3Citrate supplementation in ameliorating disc calcification in LG/J mice, a model of spontaneous age-associated disc calcification. K3Citrate successfully reduced the incidence of disc calcification in LG/J mice without deleterious effects on vertebral bone structure, plasma chemistry, and locomotion. Notably, a positive effect on grip strength, a marker of frailty, was evident in treated mice. Spectroscopic investigation of the persisting calcified nodules indicated K3Citrate did not alter the mineral composition, and collagen 10 and aggrecan staining revealed that reactivation of an endochondral differentiation program in endplates may drive LG/J disc calcification. Importantly, K3Citrate reduced calcification incidence without altering the abundance of endplate hypertrophic chondrocytes, suggesting mitigation of disc calcification through Ca2+ chelation. This was further supported by the inability of K3Citrate to inhibit hypertrophic differentiation of chondrogenic ATDC5 cells and minimal effects on their metabolic status. Overall, this study sheds light on the pathogenesis of intervertebral disc calcification in LG/J mice and underscores the therapeutic potential of K3Citrate as a systemic intervention strategy for disc calcification.
Project description:The role of long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) in calcific aortic valve disease (CAVD) remains largely elusive. This study aims to report a novel therapeutic lncRNA, SNHG3, and elucidate its role in CAVD. Based on high-throughput transcriptomic sequencing of human aortic valves, SNHG3 is among the most highly expressed lncRNAs in CAVD. Furthermore, SNHG3 upregulation is verified in human calcified aortic valves, osteoblastic human aortic valve interstitial cells (hVICs), and aortic valve tissues in CAVD mice. Moreover, knockdown of SNHG3 with antisense oligonucleotide markedly ameliorates aortic valve calcification in high cholesterol diet-treated ApoE-/- mice, as evidenced by reduced calcium deposition in the aortic valve leaflets, improved echocardiographic parameters, and decreased osteogenic differentiation markers (RUNX2, osteopontin, and osteocalcin) in aortic valves. Consistent with these in vivo findings, SNHG3 overexpression aggravates the calcification of hVICs, while knockdown of SNHG3 alleviates the process of differential calcification. Transcriptomics sequencing, gene set enrichment analyses, RNA-pull down, RNA immunoprecipitation and chromatin immunoprecipitation-qPCR show that SNHG3 physically interacts with polycomb repressive complex 2 to suppress the H3K27 tri-methylation BMP2 locus, which in turn activates BMP2 expression and signaling pathways. Taken together, SNHG3 promotes aortic valve calcification by upregulating BMP2, which might be a novel therapeutic target in human CAVD.
Project description:Estrogen Receptor B (ERB) is a member of the nuclear receptor family of homeostatic regulators that is frequently lost in breast cancer (BC), where its presence correlates with a better prognosis and a less aggressive clinical outcome of the disease. Contrary to ERα, its closest homolog, ERB shows also significant estrogen-independent activities, including the ability to inhibit cell cycle progression and to regulate gene transcription in the absence of the ligand. Investigating the nature and extent of this constitutive activity of ERB in BC MCF-7 cells by miRNA-Seq, we identified 127 miRNAs differentially expressed in ERB+ vs ERB- cells in the absence of ligand, including upregulated oncosuppressor miRs, such miR-30a, and downregulated onco-miRs, like miR-21. In addition, a significant fraction of >1,600 unique proteins identified in these cells by iTRAQ (isobaric Tag for Relative and Absolute Quantitation) quantitative proteomics was either increased or decreased by ERB, revealing regulation of multiple cell pathways by ligand-free receptor. Transcriptome analysis indicates that for a large number of proteins regulated by ERB the corresponding mRNAs are unaffected, including a large number of putative targets of ERB-regulated miRNAs, indicating a central role of miRNAs in mediating BC cell proteome regulation by ERB. Expression of a mimic of miR-30a-5p, a direct target and downstream effector of ERB in BC, led to the identification of several target transcripts of this miRNA, including 11 encoding proteins whose intracellular concentration is significantly affected by unliganded receptor. These results demonstrate a significant effect of ligand-free ERB on BC cell functions via modulation of the cell proteome and suggest that miRNA regulation may represent a key event in the control of the biological and clinical phenotype of hormone-responsive BC by this nuclear receptor.
Project description:Vascular calcification, the ectopic deposition of calcium in blood vessels, develops in association with various metabolic diseases and atherosclerosis. Because it often causes stiffness and remodeling of the blood vessels, vascular calcification increases morbidity and mortality. Both miRNA and mRNA microarrays (Series GSE74755) were performed with rat VSMCs and reciprocally regulated pairs of miRNA and mRNA were selected after bioinformatic analysis.
Project description:Reconstruction of bone defects and compensation of deficient repair mechanisms represent important goals within the field of regenerative medicine and require novel safe strategies for translation into the clinic. Therefore, we generated a nonviral osteogenic gene therapeutic (hybrid) vector system, combining an improved bone morphogenetic protein 2 (BMP2) gene cassette and pro-osteogenic microRNAs. The hybrid vectors were tested for their functionality and osteogenic differentiation potential in C2C12 and C3H/10T1/2 via alkaline phosphatase enzyme activity assay, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and reverse transcription quantitative polymerase chain reaction analysis of miRNA and osteogenic marker expression. In a mouse ectopic bone formation model, osteoinduction in transfected muscle tissue was analysed via micro computed tomography scans and histological staining. All tested hybrid vector systems led to an increase in BMP2 protein overexpression in C2C12 and C3H/10T1/2, when compared with miRNA-lacking constructs. Incorporated miRNAs were found to be efficiently upregulated. Distinct intra- and extracellular localization preferences were observed. The hybrid vector consisting of BMP2 and miR-590 revealed highest potential of inducing osteogenic differentiation. The favourable effect of combining overexpression of BMP2 and miRNAs has been shown in vitro and in vivo. Induction of mineralization was observed in an ectopic bone mouse model, although high variability in terms of size and shape indicates potential for improvement regarding plasmid administration and retention. We believe this study contributes in a valuable way to the preclinical knowledge of nonviral gene therapy for tissue regeneration. Also, we hope to encourage additional research on multi-target gene therapeutic approaches.