The Innovation (Mar 2024)

GTF2H4 regulates partial EndMT via NF-κB activation through NCOA3 phosphorylation in ischemic diseases

  • Zheyan Fang,
  • Gang Zhao,
  • Shuang Zhao,
  • Xueting Yu,
  • Runyang Feng,
  • You-en Zhang,
  • Haomin Li,
  • Lei Huang,
  • Zhenyang Guo,
  • Zhentao Zhang,
  • Mukaddas Abdurahman,
  • Hangnan Hong,
  • Peng Li,
  • Bing Wu,
  • Jinhang Zhu,
  • Xin Zhong,
  • Dong Huang,
  • Hao Lu,
  • Xin Zhao,
  • Zhaoyang Chen,
  • Wenbin Zhang,
  • Junjie Guo,
  • Hongchao Zheng,
  • Yue He,
  • Shengying Qin,
  • Haojie Lu,
  • Yun Zhao,
  • Xiangdong Wang,
  • Junbo Ge,
  • Hua Li

Journal volume & issue
Vol. 5, no. 2
p. 100565

Abstract

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Partial endothelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EndMT) is an intermediate phenotype observed in endothelial cells (ECs) undergoing a transition toward a mesenchymal state to support neovascularization during (patho)physiological angiogenesis. Here, we investigated the occurrence of partial EndMT in ECs under hypoxic/ischemic conditions and identified general transcription factor IIH subunit 4 (GTF2H4) as a positive regulator of this process. In addition, we discovered that GTF2H4 collaborates with its target protein excision repair cross-complementation group 3 (ERCC3) to co-regulate partial EndMT. Furthermore, by using phosphorylation proteomics and site-directed mutagenesis, we demonstrated that GTF2H4 was involved in the phosphorylation of receptor coactivator 3 (NCOA3) at serine 1330, which promoted the interaction between NCOA3 and p65, resulting in the transcriptional activation of NF-κB and the NF-κB/Snail signaling axis during partial EndMT. In vivo experiments confirmed that GTF2H4 significantly promoted partial EndMT and angiogenesis after ischemic injury. Collectively, our findings reveal that targeting GTF2H4 is promising for tissue repair and offers potential opportunities for treating hypoxic/ischemic diseases.