LncRNA HOXA11-AS promotes vascular endothelial cell injury in atherosclerosis by regulating the miR-515-5p/ROCK1 axis

Aims Long non-coding RNA HOXA11-AS participated in heart disease. In this study, we aim to evaluate the potential roles of HOXA11-AS in atherosclerosis and its underlying mechanisms. Methods and results The expression levels of HOXA11-AS in ox-LDL-treated HUVECs and arch tissues of high-fat diet-fed ApoE(-/-) mice (n = 10) were assessed by qRT-PCR. The effects of HOXA11-AS knockdown on the development of atherosclerosis were evaluated using in vitro and in vivo models. Luciferase reporter and RNA immunoprecipitation (RIP) assays verified the potential relationships between HOXA11-AS or ROCK1 and miR-515-5p. The interactive roles between HOXA11-AS and miR-515-5p and between miR-515-5p and ROCK1 were further characterized in ox-LDL-treated HUVECs. Our data showed that HOXA11-AS was significantly up-regulated (P < 0.001), whereas miR-515-5p was dramatically down-regulated in AS mice tissues (P < 0.001) and ox-LDL-treated HUVECs (P < 0.01). Ox-LDL could induce endothelial injuries by inhibiting cell proliferation (P < 0.001) and SOD synthesis (P < 0.001), promoting apoptosis (P < 0.01), ROS (P < 0.001), and MDA production (P < 0.001), increasing Bax (P < 0.001) and cleaved Caspase-3 (P < 0.001), and decreasing Bcl-2 (P < 0.001) and phosphorylated eNOS (P < 0.01). HOXA11-AS knockdown attenuated endothelial injuries via increasing eNOS phosphorylation. Luciferase assay and RIP results confirmed that miR-515-5p is directly bound to HOXA11-AS and ROCK1. HOXA11-AS promoted ox101-induced HUVECs injury by directly inhibiting miR-515-5p from increasing ROCK1 expression and subsequently decreasing the expression and phosphorylation of eNOS. MiR-515-5p mimics could partially reverse the effects of HOXA11-AS knockdown. Conclusions HOXA11-AS contributed to atherosclerotic injuries by directly regulating the miR-515-5p/ROCK1 axis. This study provided new evidence that HOXA11-AS might be a candidate for atherosclerosis therapy.