The Roles of MicroRNAs in Heart Diseases: A Novel Important Regulator

Abstract

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are non-coding single-stranded RNAs with about 21~23 nucleotides in length, which originate from encoding genes in nucleus. miRNAs play an inhibitory role in gene expression in a post-transcriptional level by partially complementary binding to the 3' unstranlated region (UTR) of target mRNAs. Large bodies of evidence have shown that miRNAs were involved in various diseases, such as cancer, infectious diseases, diabetes etc, and rising as critical modulators of pathological processes. Lately, some highlight articles revealed that the altered expression of miRNAs such as miR-1, miR-133, miR-21, miR-208 etc in hearts also contributed to cardiovascular diseases, such as heart ischemia, cardiac hypertrophy, and arrhythmias. Moreover, miRNAs were also identified to regulate heart development. These exciting findings not only improve our understanding of the molecular mechanisms of heart diseases, but also provide a new class of potential molecular targets. miRNAs, for the development of novel agents to treat heart diseases. Here, we summarized the recent discoveries about the role of miRNAs in cardiac physiological and pathological functions, and then discussed about their therapeutic potentials for heart diseases.

MicroRNA in cardiovascular biology and disease

“…The arrhythmogenic properties of miR-1 include repression of GJA1 and KCNJ2, which encode the connexin43 and Kir2.1 subunits of the I K1 channel, respectively. 41 Moreover, overexpression of HCN2 and HCN4, which are regulated by miR-1 and miR-133, support arrhythmia-prone mechanisms. HCN2 and HCN4, which belong to the hyperpolarization-activated cyclic nucleotide-gated channel (HCN) gene family, are found in pacemaker, atrial and ventricular cells.…”

Polymorphisms of miRNAs genes are associated with the risk and prognosis of coronary artery disease

“…Although their biologic functions largely remain unclear, recent studies have demonstrated that miRNAs may function as cancer diagnosis markers and in the prediction of treatment response [7]. Not surprisingly, this aspect of cardiac biology also has been reported to be regulated by miRNAs [8,9]. In the cardiovascular system, miRNAs are not only important for heart and vascular development but also play an essential role in cardiac pathophysiology, such as arrhythmia, ischemia and coronary atherogenesis [10][11][12].…”

MicroRNAs in myocardial ischemia: identifying new targets and tools for treating heart disease. New frontiers for miR-medicine

“…As important regulators of heart function, miRNAs represent attractive targets/tools for treating heart disease with miR drugs [125][126][127][128][129][130][131]. The momentum in miRNA field is hyped by the large investment announced by the Coloradobased Miragen, which will initially focus on identifying targets related to CvD, primarily heart failure.…”