Department of Pharmacology, State-Province Key Laboratories of Biomedicine-Pharmaceutics of China, Cardiovascular Research Institute, Harbin Medical University, Harbin, China.
Acta Pharmacol Sin. 2010 Jan;31(1):1-9. doi: 10.1038/aps.2009.175. Epub 2009 Dec 7.
Currently, cardiovascular diseases remain one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality in the world, indicating the need for innovative therapies and diagnosis for heart disease. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) have recently emerged as one of the central players in regulating gene expression. Numerous studies have documented the implications of miRNAs in nearly every pathological process of the cardiovascular system, including cardiac arrhythmia, cardiac hypertrophy, heart failure, cardiac fibrosis, cardiac ischemia and vascular atherosclerosis. More surprisingly, forced expression or suppression of a single miRNA is enough to cause or alleviate the pathological alteration, underscoring the therapeutic potential of miRNAs in cardiovascular diseases. In this review we summarize the key miRNAs that can solely modulate the cardiovascular pathological process and discuss the mechanisms by which they exert their function and the perspective of these miRNAs as novel therapeutic targets and/or diagnostic markers. In addition, current approaches for manipulating the action of miRNAs will be introduced.
目前，心血管疾病仍然是世界上发病率和死亡率的主要原因之一，这表明需要创新的治疗方法和心脏病诊断方法。microRNAs（miRNAs）最近成为调节基因表达的核心参与者之一。大量研究记录了 miRNAs 在心血管系统几乎每一个病理过程中的意义，包括心律失常、心肌肥厚、心力衰竭、心肌纤维化、心肌缺血和血管动脉粥样硬化。更令人惊讶的是，单一 miRNA 的强制表达或抑制足以引起或减轻病理改变，这凸显了 miRNAs 在心血管疾病中的治疗潜力。在这篇综述中，我们总结了能够单独调节心血管病理过程的关键 miRNAs，并讨论了它们发挥作用的机制以及将这些 miRNAs 作为新型治疗靶点和/或诊断标志物的前景。此外，还将介绍当前操纵 miRNAs 作用的方法。
