Yuehong Ma, Hongqin Chang

Department of Dermatology, The Affiliated Changzhou Second People’s Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Changzhou, People’s Republic of China

Correspondence: Hongqin Chang, Department of Dermatology, The Affiliated Changzhou Second People’s Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, No. 588 Gehu Middle Road, Wujin District, Changzhou, Jiangsu, 213000, People’s Republic of China, Email 13685261123@163.com

Background: Vitiligo is an autoimmune disease characterized by loss of skin pigmentation and currently has no effective treatment. This study aimed to investigate the function of SIRT7, being an important desuccinylase mediating multiple disease progression, and its mechanism in vitiligo progression.
Methods: Normal human melanocytes (NHM) PIG1 and vitiligo human melanocytes (VHM) PIG3V were utilized in this research. The role of sirtuin 7 (SIRT7) and Ezrin (EZR) on melanin synthesis was investigated by detecting tyrosinase activity, melanin content, α-MSH levels, and the protein levels of melanin-related markers. The function of EZR was identified via rescue experiments, while the underlying mechanism was investigated via bioinformatic analysis, co-immunoprecipitation (co-IP), immunoprecipitation (IP), and Western blot techniques.
Results: Results showed that only SIRT7 was highly expressed in vitiligo human melanocytes, where knockingdown SIRT7 translated into increased melanin synthesis in melanocytes. Mechanistically, SIRT7 knockdown promoted the succinylation of EZR at the Lys (K)60 site. Moreover, overexpressing EZR induced higher melanin synthesis in melanocytes, while its knocking down exerted the opposite effect by inhibiting SIRT7 knockdown-induced melanin synthesis.
Conclusion: SIRT7 inhibited melanin synthesis in melanocytes by suppressing the succinylation of EZR. These findings are envisaged to provide a novel theoretical basis for vitiligo treatment.

Keywords: SIRT7, EZR, succinylation, vitiligo, melanin synthesis