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USF2 activates RhoB/ROCK pathway by transcriptional inhibition of miR-206 to promote pyroptosis in septic cardiomyocytes

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Abstract

Septic cardiomyopathy (SCM) is one of the most serious complications of sepsis. The present study investigated the role and mechanism of upstream stimulatory factor 2 (USF2) in SCM. Serum samples were extracted from SCM patients and healthy individuals. A murine model of sepsis was induced by caecal ligation and puncture (CLP) surgery. Myocardial injury was examined by echocardiography and HE staining. ELISA assay evaluated myocardial markers (CK-MB, cTnI) and inflammatory cytokines (TNF-α, IL-1β, IL-18). Primary mouse cardiomyocytes were treated with lipopolysaccharide (LPS) to simulate sepsis in vitro. RT-qPCR and Western blot were used for analyzing gene and protein levels. CCK-8 assay assessed cell viability. NLRP3 was detected by immunofluorescence. ChIP, RIP and dual luciferase reporter assays were conducted to validate the molecular associations. USF2 was increased in serum from SCM patients, septic mice and primary cardiomyocytes. USF2 silencing improved the survival of septic mice and attenuated sepsis-induced myocardial pyroptosis and inflammation in vitro and in vivo. Mechanistically, USF2 could directly bind to the promoter of miR-206 to transcriptionally inhibit its expression. Moreover, RhoB was confirmed as a target of miR-206 and could promote ROCK activation and NLRP3 inflammasome formation. Moreover, overexpression of RhoB remarkably reversed the protection against LPS-induced inflammation and pyroptosis mediated by USF2 deletion or miR-206 overexpression in cardiomyocytes. The above findings elucidated that USF2 knockdown exerted a cardioprotective effect on sepsis by decreasing pyroptosis and inflammation via miR-206/RhoB/ROCK pathway, suggesting that USF2 may be a novel drug target in SCM.

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Data availability

The data underlying this article will be shared on reasonable request to the corresponding author.

Abbreviations

SCM:

Septic cardiomyopathy

USF2:

Upstream stimulatory factor 2

CLP:

Caecal ligation and puncture

LPS:

Lipopolysaccharide

NLRP3:

NOD-like receptor protein 3

ASC:

Apoptosis-associated speck-like protein

miRNAs:

MicroRNAs

LVEF:

Left ventricular ejection fraction

LVFS:

Left ventricular fraction shortening

CK-MB:

Creatine kinase isoenzyme MB

cTnI:

C-troponin I

ELISA:

Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay

H&E:

Hematoxylin–eosin staining

RT‑qPCR:

Reverse transcription quantitative polymerase chain reaction

LV:

Left ventricular

IF:

Immunofluorescence staining

ChIP:

Chromatin immunoprecipitation

SDS:

Sodium dodecyl sulfate

RIP:

RNA immunoprecipitation

SD:

Standard deviation

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Acknowledgements

We would like to give our sincere gratitude to the reviewers for their constructive comments.

Funding

This work was supported by The National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 82060067), The Natural Science Foundation of Jiangxi Province (20212BAB216039), The project of Educational Commission of Jiangxi Province (GJJ190016) and The Project of Jiangxi Provincial Health Commission (20203096, 20203092).

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Author notes

  1. Wei Dong and Ruichun Liao are the co-first authors.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Cardiology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Nanchang University, No. 17, Yong Waizheng Road, Donghu District, Nanchang, 330006, Jiangxi Province, People’s Republic of China

    Wei Dong, Ruichun Liao, Junfei Weng, Jin Chen, Xu Fang, Wenyu Liu, Tao Long, Jiaxiang You, Wensheng Wang & Xiaoping Peng

  2. Department of Emergency, The First Affiliated Hospital of Nanchang University, Nanchang, 330006, Jiangxi Province, People’s Republic of China

    Xingxiang Du

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  1. Wei Dong
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Contributions

XP: conception and design of study. WD, JW, JC, WL, JY: acquisition of data. RL, XD, XF, TL, WW: analysis and interpretation of data. WD, RL: drafting the manuscript. XP: revising the manuscript critically for important intellectual content.

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Correspondence to Xiaoping Peng.

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This study was approved by the Ethics Committee of The first affiliated hospital of Nanchang University. Each patient provided written informed consent. All the animal procedures were performed in accordance with the Guiding Principles in the Use and Care of Animals and was authorized by the Animal Ethics Committee of the first affiliated hospital of Nanchang University.

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Dong, W., Liao, R., Weng, J. et al. USF2 activates RhoB/ROCK pathway by transcriptional inhibition of miR-206 to promote pyroptosis in septic cardiomyocytes. Mol Cell Biochem (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11010-023-04781-5

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