Pluto Bioinformatics

GSE137500: An atheroprotective transcriptome induced by JQ1 (a BRD4 inhibitor) in human endothelial cells

Bulk RNA sequencing

The bromodomain and extra terminal domain (BET) family of proteins, including BRD2, BRD3, and BRD4, play a key role in many cellular processes, including inflammatory gene expression, mitosis, and viral/host interaction by controlling the assembly of histone acetylation-dependent chromatin complexes. Previous studies have shown that multiple BET inhibitors (BETi), including JQ1, have therapeutic effects in cancer and cardiovascular diseases. Some BETi have entered different phases of clinical trials. Pharmacologically, JQ1 functions by displacing BET proteins from chromatin by competitively binding to the acetyl-lysine recognition pocket of BET bromodomains. JQ1 has been used as a chemical probe to investigate the role of BET bromodomains in the transcriptional regulation of cardiovascular diseases. For example, JQ1 has been shown to attenuates inflammation and experimental atherosclerosis (Mol Cell. 2014 Oct 23; 56(2): 219231.). JQ1 has also recently been shown to reduce EndoMT and cardiac fibrosis (J Mol Cell Cardiol. 2019 Feb;127:83-96.). However, the molecular targets of JQ1 dependent or independent of BRD4 remains unknown. To depict the transcriptomic signature of JQ1 in human endothelial cells, we observed a vasoprotective and atheroprotective transcriptome by JQ1 treatment using genome-wide RNA-seq based transcriptomic profiling. JQ1 is a magic bullet in cardiovascular disease prevention. Further elucidation of new molecular targets of JQ1 will lead to the identification of potentially new therapeutic targets to treat cardiovascular diseases. SOURCE: Suowen Xu University of Rochester