Key result
circSQSTM1 overexpression in endothelial cells reduced inflammation, inhibited oxidative stress, promoted autophagy, and attenuated the progression of atherosclerosis in ApoE-/- mice.
Why the study?
Given the anti-atherosclerotic function of atorvastatin, investigators hypothesized that circSQSTM1 could protect endothelial cell functions during atherosclerosis progression.
The novel circular RNA circSQSTM1 protects endothelial function and attenuates atherosclerosis progression, providing a potential new therapeutic target and explaining part of atorvastatin's anti-atherosclerotic mechanism.
circSQSTM1 may extend ATV's endothelial mechanisms in atherosclerosis; hypothesis-generating pending in vivo validation.
A novel circRNA named circSQSTM1 (hsa_circRNA_075320) was screened out in atorvastatin (ATV) stimulated endothelial cells (ECs) by our group. Considering the anti-atherosclerotic function of ATV, we hypothesized the circSQSTM1 could protect ECs functions in AS progression. The effects of circSQSTM1 on ECs inflammation, oxidative stress and autophagy were measured by qRT-PCR, Western blotting, monocyte-endothelial adhesion assay, dichloro-dihydro-fluorescein diacetate and mCherry-GFP-LC3 labeling. A luciferase reporter assay, RNA immunoprecipitation, MS2-tagging system and fluorescence in situ hybridization were performed to identify the biological functions of circSQSTM1. The partial left carotid artery ligation model and atherosclerosis model were established to analyze the effects of circSQSTM1 on atherosclerosis progression in vivo. Our results revealed that ATV induced the accumulation of circSQSTM1 in ECs via suppressing m6A modified degradation. In the cytoplasm, circSQSTM1 could relieve Sirt1 by competitively sponging miR-23b-3p. In the nucleus, circSQSTM1 directly interacts with eIF4A3 and promoting the efficient nuclear export of FOXO1 mRNA, which encodes FOXO1 transcription factor to directly activate Sirt1 promoter activity. Hence, circSQSTM1 reduced inflammation, inhibited oxidative stress and promoted autophagy by upregulating Sirt1 in ECs. Moreover, circSQSTM1 overexpression in ECs attenuated the progression of atherosclerosis in ApoE−/− mice. Taken together, the unique noncoding RNA known as circSQSTM1 took a protective role to the ECs in atherosclerosis.
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Chen et al. (2023) studied Atherosclerosis. circSQSTM1 overexpression was evaluated on Endothelial cell inflammation, oxidative stress, autophagy, and atherosclerosis progression. circSQSTM1 overexpression in endothelial cells reduced inflammation, inhibited oxidative stress, promoted autophagy, and attenuated the progression of atherosclerosis in ApoE-/- mice.
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