The translational landscape of human vascular smooth muscle cells identifies novel short ORF-encoded peptide regulators for phenotype alteration.

Alterations of VSMC status are tightly associated with vascular diseases, including atherosclerosis. By incorporating Ribo-seq and RNA-seq of human VSMCs, we revealed that the increased translational capacity dominated the translational regulation of gene expression during alterations of VSMC phenotype. This finding of regulation in the translational level could provide new strategies of treating vascular diseases in the future. In addition, novel short ORF-encoded polypeptide (SEP) regulators for phenotype alteration were identified in the incorporated analyses. With the uncovered mechanisms, these SEPs may represent a new type of potential therapeutic target for clinical intervention of vascular diseases.