Oxygen sensing, mitochondrial biology and experimental therapeutics for pulmonary hypertension and cancer.

The homeostatic oxygen sensing system (HOSS) optimizes systemic oxygen delivery. Specialized tissues utilize a conserved mitochondrial sensor, often involving NDUFS2 in complex I of the mitochondrial electron transport chain, as a site of pO-responsive production of reactive oxygen species (ROS). These ROS are converted to a diffusible signaling molecule, hydrogen peroxide (HO), by superoxide dismutase (SOD2). HO exits the mitochondria and regulates ion channels and enzymes, altering plasma membrane potential, intracellular Ca and Ca-sensitization and controlling acute, adaptive, responses to hypoxia that involve changes in ventilation, vascular tone and neurotransmitter release. Subversion of this O-sensing pathway creates a pseudohypoxic state that promotes disease progression in pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) and cancer. Pseudohypoxia is a state in which biochemical changes, normally associated with hypoxia, occur despite normal pO. Epigenetic silencing of SOD2 by DNA methylation alters HO production, activating hypoxia-inducible factor 1α, thereby disrupting mitochondrial metabolism and dynamics, accelerating cell proliferation and inhibiting apoptosis. Other epigenetic mechanisms, including dysregulation of microRNAs (miR), increase pyruvate dehydrogenase kinase and pyruvate kinase muscle isoform 2 expression in both diseases, favoring uncoupled aerobic glycolysis. This Warburg metabolic shift also accelerates cell proliferation and impairs apoptosis. Disordered mitochondrial dynamics, usually increased mitotic fission and impaired fusion, promotes disease progression in PAH and cancer. Epigenetic upregulation of dynamin-related protein 1 (Drp1) and its binding partners, MiD49 and MiD51, contributes to the pathogenesis of PAH and cancer. Finally, dysregulation of intramitochondrial Ca, resulting from impaired mitochondrial calcium uniporter complex (MCUC) function, links abnormal mitochondrial metabolism and dynamics. MiR-mediated decreases in MCUC function reduce intramitochondrial Ca, promoting Warburg metabolism, whilst increasing cytosolic Ca, promoting fission. Epigenetically disordered mitochondrial O-sensing, metabolism, dynamics, and Ca homeostasis offer new therapeutic targets for PAH and cancer. Promoting glucose oxidation, restoring the fission/fusion balance, and restoring mitochondrial calcium regulation are promising experimental therapeutic strategies.