Involvement of Epigenetic Control and Non-coding RNAs in Cardiovascular System

Cardiovascular Diseases (CVDs) as a leading cause of death worldwide inflict major stress on morbidity and societal costs. Though the studies pertaining to pathophysiology and genetics of CVDs have helped in prevention, diagnosis and treatment of diseases, there are still lacunas in our knowledge. So, novel tools that can define genomic regulation under different conditions are needed to bridge this gap. 'Epigenetic' mechanism helps the cells to quickly respond to ever changing environment by molecular mechanisms like methylation, histone modifications, nc-RNAs. These mechanisms act as a new layer of regulation in CVDs. The role of epigenetics as a key regulatory player in prevention, diagnosis and treatment of CVDs is emerging. Thus, the focus of present chapter is to decipher the role of epigenetics in CVDs and its potential to be used in risk assessment or as biomarkers in devising and deploying better diagnosis and treatment for different CVDs.