Metabolic labeling of cardiomyocyte-derived small extracellular-vesicle (sEV) miRNAs identifies miR-208a in cardiac regulation of lung gene expression

Abstract

Toxoplasma gondii uracil phosphoribosyltransferase (UPRT) converts 4-thiouracil (4TUc) into 4-thiouridine (4TUd), which is incorporated into nascent RNAs and can be biotinylated, then labelled with streptavidin conjugates or isolated via streptavidin-affinity methods. Here, we generated mice that expressed T. gondii UPRT only in cardiomyocytes (^CM UPRT mice) and tested our hypothesis that CM-derived miRNAs (^CM miRs) are transferred into remote organs after myocardial infarction (MI) by small extracellular vesicles (sEV) that are released from the heart into the peripheral blood (^PB sEV). We found that 4TUd was incorporated with high specificity and sensitivity into RNAs isolated from the hearts and ^PB sEV of ^CM UPRT mice 6 h after 4TUc injection. In ^PB sEV, 4TUd was incorporated into CM-specific/enriched miRs including miR-208a, but not into miRs with other organ or tissue-type specificities. 4TUd-labelled miR208a was also present in lung tissues, especially lung endothelial cells (ECs), and CM-derived miR-208a (^CM miR-208a) levels peaked 12 h after experimentally induced MI in ^PB sEV and 24 h after MI in the lung. Notably, miR-208a is expressed from intron 29 of α myosin heavy chain (αMHC), but αMHC transcripts were nearly undetectable in the lung. When ^PB sEV from mice that underwent MI (MI-^PB sEV) or sham surgery (Sham-^PB sEV) were injected into intact mice, the expression of Tmbim6 and NLK, which are suppressed by miR-208a and cooperatively regulate inflammation via the NF-κB pathway, was lower in the lungs of MI-^PB sEV-treated animals than the lungs of animals treated with Sham-^PB sEV or saline. In MI mice, Tmbim6 and NLK were downregulated, whereas endothelial adhesion molecules and pro-inflammatory cells were upregulated in the lung; these changes were significantly attenuated when the mice were treated with miR-208a antagomirs prior to MI surgery. Thus, ^CM UPRT mice enables us to track ^PB sEV-mediated transport of ^CM miRs and identify an miR-208a-mediated mechanism by which myocardial injury alters the expression of genes and inflammatory response in the lung.

Keywords: UPRT; endothelial cells; extracellular vesicles; lung; miR-208a; myocardial infarction.