Shift of Macrophage Phenotype Due to Cartilage Oligomeric Matrix Protein Deficiency Drives Atherosclerotic Calcification.

RATIONALE: Intimal calcification is highly correlated with atherosclerotic plaque burden, but the underlying mechanism is poorly understood. We recently reported that cartilage oligomeric matrix protein (COMP), a component of vascular extracellular matrix, is an endogenous inhibitor of vascular smooth muscle cell calcification. OBJECTIVE: To investigate whether COMP affects atherosclerotic calcification. METHODS AND RESULTS: ApoE(-/-)COMP(-/-) mice fed with chow diet for 12 months manifested more extensive atherosclerotic calcification in the innominate arteries than did ApoE(-/-) mice. To investigate which origins of COMP contributed to atherosclerotic calcification, bone marrow transplantation was performed between ApoE(-/-) and ApoE(-/-)COMP(-/-) mice. Enhanced calcification was observed in mice transplanted with ApoE(-/-)COMP(-/-) bone marrow compared with mice transplanted with ApoE(-/-) bone marrow, indicating that bone marrow-derived COMP may play a critical role in atherosclerotic calcification. Furthermore, microarray profiling of wild-type and COMP(-/-) macrophages revealed that COMP-deficient macrophages exerted atherogenic and osteogenic characters. Integrin ß3 protein was attenuated in COMP(-/-) macrophages, and overexpression of integrin ß3 inhibited the shift of macrophage phenotypes by COMP deficiency. Furthermore, adeno-associated virus 2-integrin ß3 infection attenuated atherosclerotic calcification in ApoE(-/-)COMP(-/-) mice. Mechanistically, COMP bound directly to ß-tail domain of integrin ß3 via its C-terminus, and blocking of the COMP-integrin ß3 association by ß-tail domain mimicked the COMP deficiency-induced shift in macrophage phenotypes. Similar to COMP deficiency in mice, transduction of adeno-associated virus 2-ß-tail domain enhanced atherosclerotic calcification in ApoE(-/-) mice. CONCLUSIONS: These results reveal that COMP deficiency acted via integrin ß3 to drive macrophages toward the atherogenic and osteogenic phenotype and thereby aggravate atherosclerotic calcification.

Cartilage oligomeric matrix protein is an endogenous ß-arrestin-2-selective allosteric modulator of AT1 receptor counteracting vascular injury.

Compelling evidence has revealed that biased activation of G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) signaling, including angiotensin II (AngII) receptor type 1 (AT1) signaling, plays pivotal roles in vascular homeostasis and injury, but whether a clinically relevant endogenous biased antagonism of AT1 signaling exists under physiological and pathophysiological conditions has not been clearly elucidated. Here, we show that an extracellular matrix protein, cartilage oligomeric matrix protein (COMP), acts as an endogenous allosteric biased modulator of the AT1 receptor and its deficiency is clinically associated with abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) development. COMP directly interacts with the extracellular N-terminus of the AT1 via its EGF domain and inhibits AT1-ß-arrestin-2 signaling, but not Gq or Gi signaling, in a selective manner through allosteric regulation of AT1 intracellular conformational states. COMP deficiency results in activation of AT1a-ß-arrestin-2 signaling and subsequent exclusive AAA formation in response to AngII infusion. AAAs in COMP-/- or ApoE-/- mice are rescued by AT1a or ß-arrestin-2 deficiency, or the application of a peptidomimetic mimicking the AT1-binding motif of COMP. Explorations of the endogenous biased antagonism of AT1 receptor or other GPCRs may reveal novel therapeutic strategies for cardiovascular diseases.

Homocysteine directly interacts and activates the angiotensin II type I receptor to aggravate vascular injury.

Hyperhomocysteinemia (HHcy) is a risk factor for various cardiovascular diseases. However, the mechanism underlying HHcy-aggravated vascular injury remains unclear. Here we show that the aggravation of abdominal aortic aneurysm by HHcy is abolished in mice with genetic deletion of the angiotensin II type 1 (AT1) receptor and in mice treated with an AT1 blocker. We find that homocysteine directly activates AT1 receptor signalling. Homocysteine displaces angiotensin II and limits its binding to AT1 receptor. Bioluminescence resonance energy transfer analysis reveals distinct conformational changes of AT1 receptor upon binding to angiotensin II and homocysteine. Molecular dynamics and site-directed mutagenesis experiments suggest that homocysteine regulates the conformation of the AT1 receptor both orthosterically and allosterically by forming a salt bridge and a disulfide bond with its Arg167 and Cys289 residues, respectively. Together, these findings suggest that strategies aimed at blocking the AT1 receptor may mitigate HHcy-associated aneurysmal vascular injuries.

Predicting Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm Target Genes by Level-2 Protein-Protein Interaction.

Abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) is frequently lethal and has no effective pharmaceutical treatment, posing a great threat to human health. Previous bioinformatics studies of the mechanisms underlying AAA relied largely on the detection of direct protein-protein interactions (level-1 PPI) between the products of reported AAA-related genes. Thus, some proteins not suspected to be directly linked to previously reported genes of pivotal importance to AAA might have been missed. In this study, we constructed an indirect protein-protein interaction (level-2 PPI) network based on common interacting proteins encoded by known AAA-related genes and successfully predicted previously unreported AAA-related genes using this network. We used four methods to test and verify the performance of this level-2 PPI network: cross validation, human AAA mRNA chip array comparison, literature mining, and verification in a mouse CaPO4 AAA model. We confirmed that the new level-2 PPI network is superior to the original level-1 PPI network and proved that the top 100 candidate genes predicted by the level-2 PPI network shared similar GO functions and KEGG pathways compared with positive genes.