Inhibition of cGAS in Paraventricular Nucleus Attenuates Hypertensive Heart Injury Via Regulating Microglial Autophagy

Neuroinflammation in the cardiovascular center plays a critical role in the progression of hypertensive heart disease. And microglial autophagy is involved in the regulation of neuroinflammation. Cyclic GMP-AMP synthase (cGAS), a cytosolic DNA sensor, senses mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) and regulates autophagy. The detailed mechanisms of central cGAS affects neuroinflammatory response in hypertensive heart disease via regulating autophagy remain unknown. Angiotensin II (Ang II, 1.5 mg·kg−1·12 h−1, 2 weeks) was intraperitoneally injected to induce hypertension in mice. The cGAS-STING pathway was activated in the paraventricular nucleus (PVN) of Ang II-induced hypertensive mice. The contractile dysfunction of heart was alleviated in Ang II-induced hypertensive cGAS−/− mice. To observe the central effects of cGAS on regulating hypertensive heart disease, the RU.521 (a cGAS inhibitor) was intracisternally infused in hypertensive mice. Intracisternal infusion of the RU.521-alleviated myocardial interstitial fibrosis, cardiomyocyte hypertrophy, and the contractile dysfunction in Ang II-induced hypertensive mice. Intracisternal infusion of RU.521 attenuated the microglial activation, neuroinflammation, sympathetic/parasympathetic activity ratio, and lowered blood pressure. The autophagic flux in the PVN cells was blocked, while intracisternal infusion of RU.521 alleviated this effect in the Ang II-induced hypertensive mice. In vitro, it was found that cGAS-STING activation-induced autophagic flux blockage, while when the impaired autophagic flux was facilitated by rapamycin, an autophagy inducer, the microglial M1 polarization was decreased correspondingly. In conclusion, cGAS induces the inflammatory phenotype of microglia via impairing autophagic flux, thereby participating in neuroinflammation, which leads to sympathetic overactivation in hypertension and further caused hypertensive myocardial injury.