1. Academic Validation
  2. lncRNA ZNF593-AS inhibits cardiac hypertrophy and myocardial remodeling by upregulating Mfn2 expression

lncRNA ZNF593-AS inhibits cardiac hypertrophy and myocardial remodeling by upregulating Mfn2 expression

  • Front Med. 2024 May 14. doi: 10.1007/s11684-023-1036-4.
Xiang Nie # 1 2 Jiahui Fan # 1 2 Yanwen Wang 1 2 Rong Xie 1 2 Chen Chen 1 2 Huaping Li 3 4 Dao Wen Wang 5 6
Affiliations

Affiliations

  • 1 Division of Cardiology, Department of Internal Medicine, Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430030, China.
  • 2 Hubei Key Laboratory of Genetics and Molecular Mechanisms of Cardiological Disorders, Wuhan, 430030, China.
  • 3 Division of Cardiology, Department of Internal Medicine, Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430030, China. huapingli_tj@126.com.
  • 4 Hubei Key Laboratory of Genetics and Molecular Mechanisms of Cardiological Disorders, Wuhan, 430030, China. huapingli_tj@126.com.
  • 5 Division of Cardiology, Department of Internal Medicine, Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430030, China. dwwang@tjh.tjmu.edu.cn.
  • 6 Hubei Key Laboratory of Genetics and Molecular Mechanisms of Cardiological Disorders, Wuhan, 430030, China. dwwang@tjh.tjmu.edu.cn.
  • # Contributed equally.
Abstract

lncRNA ZNF593 antisense (ZNF593-AS) transcripts have been implicated in heart failure through the regulation of myocardial contractility. The decreased transcriptional activity of ZNF593-AS has also been detected in cardiac hypertrophy. However, the function of ZNF593-AS in cardiac hypertrophy remains unclear. Herein, we report that the expression of ZNF593-AS reduced in a mouse model of left ventricular hypertrophy and cardiomyocytes in response to treatment with the hypertrophic agonist phenylephrine (PE). In vivo, ZNF593-AS aggravated pressure overload-induced cardiac hypertrophy in knockout mice. By contrast, cardiomyocyte-specific transgenic mice (ZNF593-AS MHC-Tg) exhibited attenuated TAC-induced cardiac hypertrophy. In vitro, vector-based overexpression using murine or human ZNF593-AS alleviated PE-induced myocyte hypertrophy, whereas GapmeR-induced inhibition aggravated hypertrophic phenotypes. By using RNA-seq and gene set enrichment analyses, we identified a link between ZNF593-AS and Oxidative Phosphorylation and found that mitofusin 2 (Mfn2) is a direct target of ZNF593-AS. ZNF593-AS exerts an antihypertrophic effect by upregulating Mfn2 expression and improving mitochondrial function. Therefore, it represents a promising therapeutic target for combating pathological cardiac remodeling.

Keywords

Mfn2; ZNF593-AS; cardiac hypertrophy; lncRNA; oxidative phosphorylation.

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