Institute of Cardiovascular Regeneration, Center of Molecular Medicine, Goethe University Frankfurt, Frankfurt am Main, Germany (A.G., K.S.).
Department of Cardiology, Center of Internal Medicine, Goethe University Frankfurt, Germany (A.G., K.S.).
Circ Genom Precis Med. 2018 Sep;11(9):e001927. doi: 10.1161/CIRCGEN.118.001927.
Medicine is at the crossroads of expanding disciplines. Prompt adaptation of medicine to each rapidly advancing research field, bridging bench to bedside, is a key step toward health improvement. Cardiovascular disease still ranks first among the mortality causes in the Western world, indicating a poor adaptation rate of cardiovascular medicine, albeit the gigantic scientific breakthroughs of this century. This urges the cardiovascular research field to explore novel concepts with promising prognostic and therapeutic potential. This review attempts to introduce the newly emerging field of epitranscriptome (or else known as RNA epigenetics) to cardiovascular researchers and clinicians summarizing its applications on health and disease. The traditionally perceived, intermediate carrier of genetic information or as contemporary revised as, occasionally, even the final product of gene expression, RNA, is dynamically subjected to >140 different kinds of chemical modifications determining its fate, which may profoundly impact the cellular responses and thus both health and disease course. Which are the most prevalent types of these RNA modifications, how are they catalyzed, how are they regulated, which role may they play in health and disease, and which are the implications for the cardiovascular medicine are few important questions that are discussed in the present review.
医学正处于多个学科交叉的十字路口。医学需要迅速适应每个快速发展的研究领域，实现从实验室到临床的转化，这是改善健康的关键一步。心血管疾病仍然是西方世界死亡原因之首，这表明尽管本世纪取得了巨大的科学突破，心血管医学的适应速度仍然较慢。这促使心血管研究领域探索具有潜在预测和治疗价值的新概念。本文试图向心血管研究人员和临床医生介绍新兴的表观转录组学（也称为 RNA 表观遗传学）领域，总结其在健康和疾病中的应用。传统上被认为是遗传信息的中间载体，或者如当代所修正的，偶尔甚至是基因表达的最终产物的 RNA，会受到 140 多种不同类型的化学修饰，这些修饰决定了 RNA 的命运，可能会深刻影响细胞反应，从而影响健康和疾病进程。这些 RNA 修饰最常见的类型有哪些？它们是如何被催化的？它们是如何被调控的？它们在健康和疾病中可能扮演什么角色？这些问题对于心血管医学有哪些影响？这些都是本文讨论的重要问题。
