Published January 21, 2022 | Version v1
Journal article Open

Targeting mechanosensitive endothelial TXNDC5 to stabilize eNOS and reduce atherosclerosis in vivo

  • 1. National Taiwan University
  • 2. University of Chicago
  • 3. https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8360-9994
  • 4. Georgia Institute of Technology
  • 5. Veteran General Hospital
  • 6. Hospital General Universitario de Castellón

Description

Although atherosclerosis preferentially develops at arterial curvatures and bifurcations where disturbed flow (DF) activates endothelium, therapies targeting flow-dependent mechanosensing pathways in the vasculature are unavailable. Here, we provided experimental evidence demonstrating a previously unidentified causal role of DF-induced endothelial TXNDC5 (thioredoxin domain containing 5) in atherosclerosis. TXNDC5 was increased in human and mouse atherosclerotic lesions and induced in endothelium subjected to DF. Endothelium-specific Txndc5 deletion markedly reduced atherosclerosis in ApoE-/- mice. Mechanistically, DF-induced TXNDC5 increases proteasome-mediated degradation of heat shock factor 1, leading to reduced heat shock protein 90 and accelerated eNOS (endothelial nitric oxide synthase) protein degradation. Moreover, nanoparticles formulated to deliver Txndc5-targeting CRISPR-Cas9 plasmids driven by an endothelium-specific promoter (CDH5) significantly increase eNOS protein and reduce atherosclerosis in ApoE-/- mice. These results delineate a new molecular paradigm that DF-induced endothelial TXNDC5 promotes atherosclerosis and establish a proof of concept of targeting endothelial mechanosensitive pathways in vivo against atherosclerosis.

Data availability

All data needed to evaluate the conclusions in the paper are present in the paper and/or the Supplementary Materials.

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sciadv.abl8096.pdf

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Additional details

Identifiers

DOI
10.1126/sciadv.abl8096
Other
oai:uchicago.tind.io:10955

Funding

National Institutes of Health
R01HL138223
National Institutes of Health
R01HL136765
American Heart Association
20TPA35490401
University of South Alabama
Chicago Biomedical Consortium
A-014
National Taiwan University Hospital
NTUH.107-T02
National Taiwan University Hospital
UN107-019
National Taiwan University Hospital
107-N4062
National Taiwan University Hospital
VN107-03
National Taiwan University Hospital
108-T16
National Taiwan University Hospital
VN108-06
National Taiwan University Hospital
VN109-07
National Taiwan University Hospital
VN110-01
National Taiwan University Hospital
NTUH.108-P04
National Taiwan University Hospital
108-N4198
National Taiwan University Hospital
108-S4247
National Taiwan University Hospital
108- EDN03
National Taiwan University Hospital
109-EDN05
National Taiwan University Hospital
109-S4576
National Taiwan University Hospital
110-S4836
National Taiwan University Hospital
110-T16
National Taiwan University
109L7872
Taiwan Ministry of Science Technology
108-2314-B-002-199-MY3
Taiwan Ministry of Science Technology
109-2628-B-002-032
Taiwan National Health Research Institute
Taiwan National Health Research Institute
National Taiwan University College of Medicine and National Taiwan University Hospital
NSCCMOH-131-41
National Taiwan University College of Medicine and National Taiwan University Hospital
109C101-41
National Taiwan University College of Medicine and National Taiwan University Hospital
110C101-071
Institute of Biomedical Sciences, Academia Sinica
IBMS-CRC108-P03
Institute of Biomedical Sciences, Academia Sinica
AS-TM-109-01-04

UChicago Information

Division(s)
Biological Sciences Division, The College
Department(s)
Biological Sciences, Medicine