Aging
Navigate
Submit an Article
Research Paper|Volume 16, Issue 9|pp 8320—8335

Intracranial aneurysm circulating exosome-derived LncRNA ATP1A1-AS1 promotes smooth muscle cells phenotype switching and apoptosis

Chao Wang1, Hong Li2, Han Zhou1, Yifan Xu1, Shifang Li1, Meng Zhu1, Bing Yu3, Yugong Feng1
  • 1Department of Neurosurgery, The Affiliated Hospital of Qingdao University, Qingdao, People’s Republic of China
  • 2Clinical Laboratory, Central Laboratory, Qingdao Hiser Hospital Affiliated of Qingdao University (Qingdao Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital), Qingdao, People’s Republic of China
  • 3Department of Ophthalmology, The Affiliated Hospital of Qingdao University, Qingdao, People’s Republic of China
Received: November 20, 2023Accepted: March 26, 2024Published: May 8, 2024
https://doi.org/10.18632/aging.205821

Copyright: © 2024 Wang et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Abstract

Exosomal long non-coding RNAs (LncRNAs) play a crucial role in the pathogenesis of cerebrovascular diseases. However, the expression profiles and functional significance of exosomal LncRNAs in intracranial aneurysms (IAs) remain poorly understood. Through high-throughput sequencing, we identified 1303 differentially expressed LncRNAs in the plasma exosomes of patients with IAs and healthy controls. Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) verification confirmed the differential expression of LncRNAs, the majority of which aligned with the sequencing results. ATP1A1-AS1 showed the most significant upregulation in the disease group. Importantly, subsequent in vitro experiments validated that ATP1A1-AS1 overexpression induced a phenotype switching in vascular smooth muscle cells, along with promoting apoptosis and upregulating MMP-9 expression, potentially contributing to IAs formation. Furthermore, expanded-sample validation affirmed the high diagnostic value of ATP1A1-AS1. These findings suggest that ATP1A1-AS1 is a potential therapeutic target for inhibiting IAs progression and serves as a valuable clinical diagnostic marker.