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Published on: June 15, 2018
Circulating microRNAs in Cardiovascular Diseases
Marta Orlicka-Płocka1, Dorota Gurda1, Agnieszka Fedoruk-Wyszomirska1
1Laboratory of Subcellular Structures Analyses, Department of Epigenetics, Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry Polish Academy of Sciences, Poznań, Poland.
Insights
Cardiovascular diseases (CD) are a leading cause of death. Circulating microRNAs (miRNAs) show promise as novel biomarkers for diagnosing heart conditions, offering new diagnostic avenues beyond traditional risk factors.
Area of Science:
- Biomedical Science
- Molecular Biology
- Cardiology
Background:
- Cardiovascular diseases (CD) represent a significant global health burden and leading cause of mortality.
- Cardiac remodeling, driven by molecular and cellular changes, underlies heart injury but standard risk factors are becoming less effective for prediction and treatment.
- There is a critical need for novel biomarkers to improve the diagnosis and management of cardiovascular diseases.
Purpose of the Study:
- To summarize the current understanding of microRNAs (miRNAs).
- To explore the biogenesis of miRNAs.
- To evaluate the potential of circulating miRNAs as biomarkers for diagnosing cardiovascular diseases.
Main Methods:
- Literature review and synthesis of existing research on microRNAs.
- Analysis of miRNA biogenesis pathways.
- Assessment of studies investigating circulating miRNAs in cardiovascular disease contexts.
Main Results:
- MicroRNAs are short, non-coding RNAs regulating gene expression post-transcriptionally.
- Circulating miRNAs in blood plasma/serum are linked to signaling pathways involved in aging and cardiovascular disease development.
- These circulating miRNAs hold significant potential as diagnostic biomarkers.
Conclusions:
- MicroRNAs represent a promising new class of biomarkers for cardiovascular diseases.
- Understanding miRNA biogenesis is key to unlocking their diagnostic potential.
- Further research into circulating miRNAs could revolutionize cardiovascular disease diagnosis and management.
Abstract:
Cardiovascular Diseases (CD) are currently one of the most common causes of death. Because heart related deaths occur on such an enormous scale this phenomenon is referred to as an epidemic. Chronic and acute injury of the heart could be an effect of cardiac remodeling, which is a result of molecular, cellular and interstitial changes, influenced by hemodynamic load or neurohormonal activation (Cohn et al., 2000). These small deviations in cardiac activity and morphology may lead to an enormous negative effect. Despite a significant progress, knowledge of standard risk factors for cardiovascular diseases has become less and less effective, which is why predicting and seeking an appropriate treatment is very challenging. As a result, there is a growing interest in finding new markers of the CD. MicroRNAs (miRNAs), are short, non-coding RNAs responsible for regulation of gene expression at the post-transcriptional level. Among them that have the greatest potential are microRNA molecules that circulate in the blood plasma or serum, that are related to direct activation of signaling pathways, implicated in the aging process and thus for the development of cardiovascular disease. This paper is a summary of the current state of knowledge on miRNAs, their biogenesis and potential role as biomarkers to diagnose heart disease.
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