Author response: RBMX2: A Pivotal Regulator Linking Mycobacterium bovis Infection to Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition and Lung Cancer Progression

作者：Chao Wang, Yongchong Peng, Hongxin Yang, Yanzhu Jiang, Abdul Karim Khalid, Kailun Zhang, Shengsong Xie, Luiz E. Bermudez, Yongzhen Yang, Lei Zhang, Huanchun Chen, Aizhen Guo, Yingyu Chen · 年份：2025 · DOI：10.7554/elife.107132.2.sa0 · 研究领域：Mycobacterium research and diagnosis、RNA modifications and cancer、Cancer-related molecular mechanisms research

Tuberculosis (TB) is a complex disease that arises from the dynamic interplay among the pathogen, host, and environmental factors. In 2022, TB affected approximately 10.6 million people worldwide, resulting in 1.3 million deaths. In regions with a high burden of zoonotic TB, Mycobacterium bovis (M. bovis) accounts for nearly 10% of human TB cases. The immune evasion strategies and latent nature of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M. tb) pose significant challenges to understanding the host immune response to TB infection. In this study, we identify RNA-binding motif protein X-linked 2 (RBMX2) as a novel host factor that may facilitate M. bovis infection. However, the molecular mechanisms and functional roles of RBMX2 during M. bovis infection remain poorly understood.Our findings show that RBMX2 is significantly upregulated across multiple cell types following infection, including embryonic bovine lung (EBL) cells, bovine macrophage (BoMac) cells, bovine pulmonary alveolar primary cells, and human alveolar epithelial cells (A549). Using a combination of global transcriptomic sequencing, proteomic profiling, cell adhesion assays, ChIP-PCR, and Western blotting, we demonstrate that RBMX2 suppresses cell adhesion and tight junction formation in EBL cells while promoting M. bovis adhesion and invasion through activation of the p65 signaling pathway. Importantly, integrated analyses of transcriptomic, proteomic, and metabolomic data reveal that RBMX2 plays a key role in regulating epit...