Research progress on orphan nuclear receptor NR 4A1 in atherosclerosis / 药学实践杂志

ABSTRACT

Orphan nuclear receptor NR4A1 from the NR4A subfamily is one of the transcriptional factors that have not identified specific ligands .Previous studies have found that NR4A1 could regulate cell proliferation ,apoptosis ,differentiation and stress responses by changing gene expression ,post-translational modification and interactions between coregulatory pro-teins .Recently ,it has shown that NR4A1 has an abnormal expression in human atherosclerotic lesions and has been identified as a key regulator gene in vascular cells dysfunction .Regulating NR4A1 expression can have an important impact on the prolif-eration of smooth muscle cell and endothelial cell activation ,meanwhile it could reduce inflammation ,foam cell formation and lipid deposition ,inhibit vascular remodeling ,and prevent the development of atherosclerosis .These studies suggest that NR4A1 might be a novel target for drug development in prevention and treatment of atherosclerosis .