Abstract 15469: Activation of Sting Pathway Promotes Epigenetic Induction of Smooth Muscle Cell Phenotypic Alterations in Aortic Wall
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Introduction: Smooth muscle cell phenotypic alteration is a prominent feature of aortic aneurysms and dissections (AAD) that causes the loss of functional, contractile, smooth muscle cells (SMCs) and subsequent aortic dysfunction. However, SMC phenotypic alteration in AAD and the underlying mechanism is poorly understood. Hypothesis: Stress on the aorta induces a phenotypic switch in SMCs from a contractile role to a pro-inflammatory role that promotes cell dysfunction and death. Methods: We performed single-cell RNA and ATAC sequencing (scRNA-seq, scATAC-seq) of ascending aortic tissues from patients with sporadic ascending AAD and organ donor controls, alongside murine aortic tissues from a sporadic AAD model and wild-type mice. The role of the STING pathway in SMC phenotypic alterations was studied in human aortic SMCs. Chromatin immunoprecipitation assays were used to study epigenetic regulation Results: Significant SMC transformation from a contractile phenotype to a pro-inflammatory, pro-fibroblast, and pro-death phenotype was seen in scRNA-seq of aortic tissues from AAD patients and a sporadic AAD murine tissue. Our sc-ATACseq indicated that SMC transformation was partially controlled by chromatin remodeling of these genes, and IRF3 was identified as a key transcriptional factor for the reduction of chromatin accessibility of contractile genes, but induction of chromatin accessibility of inflammatory genes. In cultured SMCs, cytosolic DNA, through STING-TBK1 signaling, activated IRF3, which directly bound cis-elements of contractile genes, and recruited EZH2 to induce repressive H3K27me3 modification, leading to SMC gene suppression. Activated IRF3 also induced inflammatory gene expression. SMC-Sting deficiency prevented proinflammatory phenotypic switch in the sporadic AAD mouse model and restored contractile phenotype. Conclusion: We highlight an epigenetic pathway responsible for SMC dysfunction that induced SMC gene suppression and SMC phenotype changes and identified STING-TBK-IRF3-EZH2 as key signaling that suppresses SMC genes. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study reporting that the STING pathway contributes to AAD development by SMC transition from a contractile to an inflammatory phenotype.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.007 | 0.002 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".