Laffont Benoit, Rayner Katey J
University of Ottawa Heart Institute, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
University of Ottawa Heart Institute, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada; Department of Biochemistry, Microbiology and Immunology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
Can J Cardiol. 2017 Mar;33(3):313-324. doi: 10.1016/j.cjca.2017.01.001. Epub 2017 Jan 5.
MicroRNAs are short noncoding RNAs, expressed in humans and involved in sequence-specific post-transcriptional regulation of gene expression. They have emerged as key players in a wide array of biological processes, and changes in their expression and/or function have been associated with plethora of human diseases. Atherosclerosis and its related clinical complications, such as myocardial infarction or stroke, represent the leading cause of death in the Western world. Accumulating experimental evidence has revealed a key role for microRNAs in regulating cellular and molecular processes related to atherosclerosis development, ranging from risk factors, to plaque initiation and progression, up to atherosclerotic plaque rupture. In this review, we focus on how microRNAs can influence atherosclerosis biology, as well as the potential clinical applications of microRNAs, which are being developed as targets as well as therapeutic agents for a growing industry hoping to harness the power of RNA-guided gene regulation to fight disease and infection.
微小RNA是短链非编码RNA，在人类中表达，参与基因表达的序列特异性转录后调控。它们已成为众多生物学过程中的关键参与者，其表达和/或功能的变化与多种人类疾病相关。动脉粥样硬化及其相关临床并发症，如心肌梗死或中风，是西方世界的主要死因。越来越多的实验证据表明，微小RNA在调节与动脉粥样硬化发展相关的细胞和分子过程中起关键作用，范围从危险因素到斑块起始和进展，直至动脉粥样硬化斑块破裂。在本综述中，我们关注微小RNA如何影响动脉粥样硬化生物学，以及微小RNA的潜在临床应用，它们正作为靶点以及治疗剂被开发，以满足一个不断发展的行业的需求，该行业希望利用RNA引导的基因调控的力量来对抗疾病和感染。
