Fusion protein engineered exosomes for targeted degradation of specific RNAs in lysosomes: a proof-of-concept study.

Therapeutically intervening the function of RNA in vivo remains a big challenge. We here developed an exosome-based strategy to deliver engineered RNA-binding protein for the purpose of recruiting specific RNA to the lysosomes for degradation. As a proof-of-principle study, RNA-binding protein HuR was fused to the C-terminus of Lamp2b, a membrane protein localized in both exosome and lysosome. The fusion protein was able to be incorporated into the exosomes. Moreover, exosomes engineered with Lamp2b-HuR successfully decreased the abundance of RNA targets possibly via lysosome-mediated degradation, especially when the exosomes were acidified. The system was specifically effective in macrophages, which are lysosome enriched and resistant to routine transfection mediated RNAi strategy. In the CCl4-induced liver injury mouse model, we found that delivery of acidified exosomes engineered with Lamp2b-HuR significantly reduced liver fibrosis, together with decreased miR-155 and other inflammatory genes. In summary, the established exosome-based RNA-binding protein delivery strategy, namely "exosome-mediated lysosomal clearance", takes the advantage of exosome in targeted delivery and holds great promise in regulating a set of genes in vivo.

Dysregulated Txnip-ROS-Wnt axis contributes to the impaired ischemic heart repair in diabetic mice.

Hyperglycemia-induced impairment of angiogenesis contributes to the unfavorable prognosis of myocardial ischemia in long-standing diabetes mellitus. The underlying mechanism remains largely unknown and therapeutic strategies thereby limited. In the present study, we investigated the possible involvement of thioredoxin-interacting protein (TXNIP) and Wnt/ß-catenin signaling in the context, and their possible relation was also explored. STZ induced diabetic mice were subjected to myocardial infarction (MI). Adenovirus expressing shTXNIP, shCtnnb1 (ß-catenin) driven by VE-Cadherin promoter was administered intramyocardially immediately after MI. Cardiac function, histology, and molecular analyses were performed at predetermined time points. Increased endothelial expression of TXNIP was found in diabetic hearts, which correlated well with reduced nuclear ß-catenin expression, insufficient angiogenesis, aggravated cardiac remodeling, and poor survival. Endothelial-specific knockdown of TXNIP significantly rescued ß-catenin activity, together with increased angiogenesis, preserved cardiac function, and improved survival rate. Moreover, additional knockdown of ß-catenin essentially reversed the beneficial effects of TXNIP downregulation. In vitro, high glucose treatment of human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) increased TXNIP levels and ROS concentration, while it reduced ß-catenin activity. Silencing TXNIP or ROS scavenger restored the high glucose induced reduction of Wnt/ß-catenin activity in HUVECs. In addition, either reduction of TXNIP expression or supplementation of exogenous Wnt3a improved the HUVECs quantity and migration under high glucose conditions. Diabetes-induced increase of TXNIP expression in the endothelium contributes to impaired angiogenesis after MI, especially via the elevation of ROS and the impaired Wnt/ß-catenin signaling. Targeting TXNIP-ROS-Wnt is a promising strategy in improving the prognosis.

Sedentary lifestyle related exosomal release of Hotair from gluteal-femoral fat promotes intestinal cell proliferation.

Pioneering epidemiological work has established strong association of sedentary lifestyle and obesity with the risk of colorectal cancer, while the detailed underlying mechanism remains unknown. Here we show that Hotair (HOX transcript antisense RNA) is a pro-adipogenic long non-coding RNA highly expressed in gluteal-femoral fat over other fat depots. Hotair knockout in adipose tissue results in gluteal-femoral fat defect. Squeeze of the gluteal-femoral fat induces intestinal proliferation in wildtype mice, while not in Hotair knockout mice. Mechanistically, squeeze of the gluteal-femoral fat induces exosomal Hotair secretion mainly by transcriptional upregulation of Hotair via NFκB. And increased exosomal Hotair in turn circulates in the blood and is partially endocytosed by the intestine, finally promoting the stemness and proliferation of intestinal stem/progenitor cells via Wnt activation. Clinically, obese subjects with sedentary lifestyle have much higher exosomal HOTAIR expression in the serum. These findings establish that sedentary lifestyle promotes exosomal Hotair release from the gluteal-femoral fat, which in turn facilitates intestinal stem and/or progenitor proliferation, raising a possible link between sedentary lifestyle with colorectal tumorigenesis.

Ultrasound-guided imaging of junctional adhesion molecule-A-targeted microbubbles identifies vulnerable plaque in rabbits.

Identification of vulnerable atherosclerotic plaques by imaging the molecular characteristics is intensively studied recently, in which verification of specific markers is the critical step. JAM-A, a junctional membrane protein, is involved in the plaque formation, while it is unknown whether it can serve as a marker for vulnerable plaques. Vulnerable and stable plaques were created in rabbits with high cholesterol diet with or without partial ligation of carotid artery respectively. Significant higher JAM-A expression was found in vulnerable plaques than that in stable plaques. Furthermore, JAM-A was not only expressed in the endothelium, but also abundantly expressed in CD68-positive area. Next, JAM-A antibody conjugated microbubbles (MBJAM-A) or control IgG-conjugated microbubbles (MBC) were developed by conjugating the biotinylated antibodies to the streptavidin modified microbubbles, and visualization by contrast-enhance ultrasound (CEUS). Signal intensity of MBJAM-A was substantially enhanced and prolonged in the vulnerable plaque and some of the MBJAM-A was found colocalized with CD68 positive macrophages. In addition, cell model revealed that MBJAM-A were able to be phagocytized by activated macrophages. Taken together, we have found that increase of JAM-A serves as a marker for vulnerable plaques and targeted CEUS would be possibly a novel non-invasive molecular imaging method for plaque vulnerability.

Hyperglycemia and hyperlipidemia blunts the Insulin-Inpp5f negative feedback loop in the diabetic heart.

The leading cause of death in diabetic patients is diabetic cardiomyopathy, in which alteration of Akt signal plays an important role. Inpp5f is recently found to be a negative regulator of Akt signaling, while its expression and function in diabetic heart is largely unknown. In this study, we found that in both the streptozotocin (STZ) and high fat diet (HFD) induced diabetic mouse models, Inpp5f expression was coordinately regulated by insulin, blood glucose and lipid levels. Increased Inpp5f was inversely correlated with the cardiac function. Further studies revealed that Insulin transcriptionally activated Inpp5f in an Sp1 dependent manner, and increased Inpp5f in turn reduced the phosphorylation of Akt, forming a negative feedback loop. The negative feedback plays a protective role under diabetic condition. However, high blood glucose and lipid, which are characteristics of uncontrolled diabetes and type 2 diabetes, increased Inpp5f expression through activation of NF-κB, blunts the protective feedback. Thus, our study has revealed that Inpp5f provides as a negative feedback regulator of insulin signaling and downregulation of Inpp5f in diabetes is cardioprotective. Increased Inpp5f by hyperglycemia and hyperlipidemia is an important mediator of diabetic cardiomyopathy and is a promising therapeutic target for the disease.

Cytoplasmic translocation of HuR contributes to angiotensin II induced cardiac fibrosis.

Cardiac fibrosis is one of the key structural changes of the hypertrophied left ventricle in hypertensive heart disease. Increased angiotensin II was found to be important in the hypertension related fibrosis, while the underlying mechanism is unknown. In this study, we found that angiotensin II dose-dependently increased the expression of Col1a1, Col3a1 and α-smooth muscle actin, which were blocked by ROS (reactive oxygen species) scavenger N-acetyl cysteine (NAC). Mechanistically, angiotensin II induced robust ROS generation, which in turn induced cytoplasmic translocation of RNA binding protein HuR. Cytoplasmic translocated HuR increased TGFß pathway activity and subsequent collagen synthesis. In contrast, knockdown of HuR nearly blocked angiotensin II induced TGFß activation and collagen synthesis. Taken together, we here identified that angiotensin II promotes collagen synthesis in cardiac fibroblast through ROS-HuR-TGFß pathway.

Adrenaline promotes cell proliferation and increases chemoresistance in colon cancer HT29 cells through induction of miR-155.

Recently, catecholamines have been described as being involved in the regulation of cancer genesis and progression. Here, we reported that adrenaline increased the cell proliferation and decreased the cisplatin induced apoptosis in HT29 cells. Further study found that adrenaline increased miR-155 expression in an NFκB dependent manner. HT29 cells overexpressing miR-155 had a higher cell growth rate and more resistance to cisplatin induced apoptosis. In contrast, HT29 cells overexpressing miR-155 inhibitor displayed decreased cell proliferation and sensitivity to cisplatin induced cell death. In summary, our study here revealed that adrenaline-NFκB-miR-155 pathway at least partially contributes to the psychological stress induced proliferation and chemoresistance in HT29 cells, shedding light on increasing the therapeutic strategies of cancer chemotherapy.

A conserved TGFß1/HuR feedback circuit regulates the fibrogenic response in fibroblasts.

Persistent fibroblast activation in wound repair is believed to be the key reason for fibrosis and transforming growth factor (TGF)ß is considered as one of the key mediators for the fibrogenic response, with the detailed mechanism largely unknown. Here we found that TGFß1 treatment could induce a significant increase of endogenous TGFß1 expression by enhancing the mRNA stability in cardiac fibroblasts. Further study revealed that TGFß1 treatment translocated the nuclear HuR into cytoplasm, which in turn bound the ARE in the 3'UTR of TGFß1 and increased the mRNA stability as seen from the RNA-IP and reporter assay. Knockdown of HuR decreased the endogenous expression of TGFß1 under exogenous TGFß1 treatment, simultaneously with the decrease of Col1a, Col3a and fibronectin expression. Our study here established a TGFß1/HuR feedback circuit regulating the fibrogenic response in fibroblasts, and targeting this feedback loop is of great potential to control fibrosis.