Haemmig Stefan, Simion Viorel, Feinberg Mark W
Cardiovascular Division, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States.
Front Cardiovasc Med. 2018 Mar 14;5:22. doi: 10.3389/fcvm.2018.00022. eCollection 2018.
Less than 2% of the genome encodes for proteins. Accumulating studies have revealed a diverse set of RNAs derived from the non-coding genome. Among them, long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) have garnered widespread attention over recent years as emerging regulators of diverse biological processes including in cardiovascular disease (CVD). However, our knowledge of their mechanisms by which they control CVD-related gene expression and cell signaling pathways is still limited. Furthermore, only a handful of lncRNAs has been functionally evaluated in the context of vascular inflammation, an important process that underlies both acute and chronic disease states. Because some lncRNAs may be expressed in cell- and tissue-specific expression patterns, these non-coding RNAs hold great promise as novel biomarkers and as therapeutic targets in health and disease. Herein, we review those lncRNAs implicated in pro- and anti-inflammatory processes of acute and chronic vascular inflammation. An improved understanding of lncRNAs in vascular inflammation may provide new pathophysiological insights in CVD and opportunities for the generation of a new class of RNA-based biomarkers and therapeutic targets.
基因组中编码蛋白质的部分不到2%。越来越多的研究揭示了源自非编码基因组的多种RNA。其中，长链非编码RNA（lncRNA）近年来作为包括心血管疾病（CVD）在内的多种生物过程的新兴调节因子而受到广泛关注。然而，我们对它们控制CVD相关基因表达和细胞信号通路机制的了解仍然有限。此外，在血管炎症（这是急性和慢性疾病状态的重要基础过程）背景下，只有少数lncRNA进行了功能评估。由于一些lncRNA可能以细胞和组织特异性表达模式表达，这些非编码RNA作为健康和疾病中的新型生物标志物和治疗靶点具有巨大潜力。在此，我们综述了那些与急性和慢性血管炎症的促炎和抗炎过程相关的lncRNA。对血管炎症中lncRNA的深入了解可能为CVD提供新的病理生理学见解，并为生成一类新的基于RNA的生物标志物和治疗靶点提供机会。
