In a collaborative study, Pullamsetti and Goncharova labs described a novel pro-proliferative role of MST1/2 in pulmonary hypertensive (PH) pulmonary vasculature, providing a novel mechanistic link from MST1/2 via BUB3 and FoxO to the abnormal proliferation and survival of pulmonary vascular cells and thereby to vascular remodeling, suggestings new target pathways for therapeutic intervention.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35124974/

In an extensive epigenetics-wide study Pullamsetti lab uncovered the epigenetic changes linked to the reexpression of developmental TFs (TBX4, TBX5, and SOX9) in adult PAH-FBs that are comparable to the expression signatures identified in fetal lung mesenchyme. The study shows that this proteins were elevated in the newborn PH and were strongly reexpressed in the vasculature of pediatric and adult PAH patients, while their pharmacological inhibition reduces the remodeling of distal pulmonary vessels, improves hemodynamics, and reverses the established PAH in three rodent models in vivo, enabling the development of new therapeutic strategies for PH.

https://www.science.org/doi/abs/10.1126/scitranslmed.abe5407