Browsing by Author "Yu, Qiujun"

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    Allele-specific control of rodent and human lncRNA KMT2E-AS1 promotes hypoxic endothelial pathology in pulmonary hypertension
    (American Association for the Advancement of Science, 2024) Tai, Yi-Yin; Yu, Qiujun; Tang, Ying; Sun, Wei; Kelly, Neil J.; Okawa, Satoshi; Zhao, Jingsi; Schwantes-An, Tae-Hwi; Lacoux, Caroline; Torrino, Stephanie; Al Aaraj, Yassmin; El Khoury, Wadih; Negi, Vinny; Liu, Mingjun; Corey, Catherine G.; Belmonte, Frances; Vargas, Sara O.; Schwartz, Brian; Bhat, Bal; Chau, B. Nelson; Karnes, Jason H.; Satoh, Taijyu; Barndt, Robert J.; Wu, Haodi; Parikh, Victoria N.; Wang, Jianrong; Zhang, Yingze; McNamara, Dennis; Li, Gang; Speyer, Gil; Wang, Bing; Shiva, Sruti; Kaufman, Brett; Kim, Seungchan; Gomez, Delphine; Mari, Bernard; Cho, Michael H.; Boueiz, Adel; Pauciulo, Michael W.; Southgate, Laura; Trembath, Richard C.; Sitbon, Olivier; Humbert, Marc; Graf, Stefan; Morrell, Nicholas W.; Rhodes, Christopher J.; Wilkins, Martin R.; Nouraie, Mehdi; Nichols, William C.; Desai, Ankit A.; Bertero, Thomas; Chan, Stephen Y.; Medicine, School of Medicine
    Hypoxic reprogramming of vasculature relies on genetic, epigenetic, and metabolic circuitry, but the control points are unknown. In pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH), a disease driven by hypoxia inducible factor (HIF)-dependent vascular dysfunction, HIF-2α promoted expression of neighboring genes, long noncoding RNA (lncRNA) histone lysine N-methyltransferase 2E-antisense 1 (KMT2E-AS1) and histone lysine N-methyltransferase 2E (KMT2E). KMT2E-AS1 stabilized KMT2E protein to increase epigenetic histone 3 lysine 4 trimethylation (H3K4me3), driving HIF-2α-dependent metabolic and pathogenic endothelial activity. This lncRNA axis also increased HIF-2α expression across epigenetic, transcriptional, and posttranscriptional contexts, thus promoting a positive feedback loop to further augment HIF-2α activity. We identified a genetic association between rs73184087, a single-nucleotide variant (SNV) within a KMT2E intron, and disease risk in PAH discovery and replication patient cohorts and in a global meta-analysis. This SNV displayed allele (G)-specific association with HIF-2α, engaged in long-range chromatin interactions, and induced the lncRNA-KMT2E tandem in hypoxic (G/G) cells. In vivo, KMT2E-AS1 deficiency protected against PAH in mice, as did pharmacologic inhibition of histone methylation in rats. Conversely, forced lncRNA expression promoted more severe PH. Thus, the KMT2E-AS1/KMT2E pair orchestrates across convergent multi-ome landscapes to mediate HIF-2α pathobiology and represents a key clinical target in pulmonary hypertension.
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    Frataxin deficiency promotes endothelial senescence in pulmonary hypertension
    (The American Society for Clinical Investigation, 2021-06-01) Culley, Miranda K.; Zhao, Jingsi; Tai, Yi Yin; Tang, Ying; Perk, Dror; Negi, Vinny; Yu, Qiujun; Woodcock, Chen-Shan C.; Handen, Adam; Speyer, Gil; Kim, Seungchan; Lai, Yen-Chun; Satoh, Taijyu; Watson, Annie M.M.; Al Aaraj, Yassmin; Sembrat, John; Rojas, Mauricio; Goncharov, Dmitry; Goncharova, Elena A.; Khan, Omar F.; Anderson, Daniel G.; Dahlman, James E.; Gurkar, Aditi U.; Lafyatis, Robert; Fayyaz, Ahmed U.; Redfield, Margaret M.; Gladwin, Mark T.; Rabinovitch, Marlene; Gu, Mingxia; Bertero, Thomas; Chan, Stephen Y.; Medicine, School of Medicine
    The dynamic regulation of endothelial pathophenotypes in pulmonary hypertension (PH) remains undefined. Cellular senescence is linked to PH with intracardiac shunts; however, its regulation across PH subtypes is unknown. Since endothelial deficiency of iron-sulfur (Fe-S) clusters is pathogenic in PH, we hypothesized that a Fe-S biogenesis protein, frataxin (FXN), controls endothelial senescence. An endothelial subpopulation in rodent and patient lungs across PH subtypes exhibited reduced FXN and elevated senescence. In vitro, hypoxic and inflammatory FXN deficiency abrogated activity of endothelial Fe-S–containing polymerases, promoting replication stress, DNA damage response, and senescence. This was also observed in stem cell–derived endothelial cells from Friedreich’s ataxia (FRDA), a genetic disease of FXN deficiency, ataxia, and cardiomyopathy, often with PH. In vivo, FXN deficiency–dependent senescence drove vessel inflammation, remodeling, and PH, whereas pharmacologic removal of senescent cells in Fxn-deficient rodents ameliorated PH. These data offer a model of endothelial biology in PH, where FXN deficiency generates a senescent endothelial subpopulation, promoting vascular inflammatory and proliferative signals in other cells to drive disease. These findings also establish an endothelial etiology for PH in FRDA and left heart disease and support therapeutic development of senolytic drugs, reversing effects of Fe-S deficiency across PH subtypes.