MiRNAs, lncRNAs, and circular RNAs as mediators in hypertension-related vascular smooth muscle cell dysfunction

Hypertension is a multifactorial disorder that involves complex genetic and environmental factors. Vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) are important components of blood vessels, and their dysregulation has been shown to be involved in vascular remodeling during the development of systemic hypertension and pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) via multiple mechanisms, such as aberrant apoptosis, phenotype conversion, proliferation, and migration of VSMCs. With increasing advances in microarrays and next-generation sequencing, nonprotein-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) have attracted much attention due to their numerous functions in health and diseases. Among ncRNAs, microRNAs (miRNAs), long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs), and circular RNAs are emerging as novel modulators in the biological behaviors of VSMCs, especially in systemic hypertension and PAH. Studies have recommended miRNAs, lncRNAs, and circular RNAs as predictive biomarkers and therapeutic targets for systemic hypertension and PAH. In this review, we summarize the current studies focusing on the roles of VSMC-derived miRNAs, lncRNAs and circular RNAs in the pathologies of systemic hypertension and PAH. MiRNAs, lncRNAs, and circular RNAs might serve as attractive targets for the prevention and treatment of VSMC dysfunction-linked systemic hypertension and PAH.