Frontiers in Pharmacology (Apr 2021)

Caspase-11-Gasdermin D-Mediated Pyroptosis Is Involved in the Pathogenesis of Atherosclerosis

  • Mengqing Jiang,
  • Xuejing Sun,
  • Suzhen Liu,
  • Yan Tang,
  • Yunming Shi,
  • Yuanyuan Bai,
  • Yujie Wang,
  • Qiong Yang,
  • Qize Yang,
  • Weihong Jiang,
  • Hong Yuan,
  • Qixia Jiang,
  • Jingjing Cai,
  • Jingjing Cai

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3389/fphar.2021.657486
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 12

Abstract

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Background: Pyroptosis is a form of cell death triggered by proinflammatory signals. Recent studies have reported that oxidized phospholipids function as caspase-11 agonists to induce noncanonical inflammasome activation in immune cells. As the levels of oxidized phospholipids derived from ox-LDL are largely elevated in atherosclerotic lesions, this study sought to determine whether oxidized lipids trigger pyroptosis and subsequent inflammation in the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis.Methods and Results: In our current study, after integrating transcriptomic data available from the Gene Expression Omnibus with data from hyperlipidemic mice and ox-LDL-treated peritoneal macrophages, we discovered that caspase-4/11-gasdermin D-associated inflammatory signaling was significantly activated. Consistently, the mRNA expression of caspase-4 and gasdermin D was upregulated in peripheral blood mononuclear cells from patients with coronary heart disease. In particular, the expression of caspase-4 was closely associated with the severity of lesions in the coronary arteries. An in vivo study showed that caspase-11-gasdermin D activation occurred in response to a high-fat/high-cholesterol (HFHC) diet in ApoE−/− mice, while caspase-11 deletion largely attenuated the volume and macrophage infiltration of atherosclerotic lesions. An in vitro mechanistic study showed that caspase-11-mediated inflammation occurred partly via gasdermin D-mediated pyroptosis in macrophages. Suppressing gasdermin D in HFHC-fed ApoE−/− mice via delivery of an adeno-associated virus markedly decreased lesion volume and infiltrating macrophage numbers.Conclusion: Caspase-11-gasdermin D-mediated pyroptosis and the subsequent proinflammatory response in macrophages are involved in the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis. Therefore, targeting the caspase 11-gasdermin D may serve as an alternative strategy for the treatment of atherosclerosis.

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