Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 18, 2025

In Vivo Nanovector Delivery of a Heart-specific MicroRNA-sponge
Published on: June 15, 2018
Recent advances of PIWI-interacting RNA in cardiovascular diseases
Bo Li1,2, Kai Wang2, Wei Cheng3
1Key Laboratory of Maternal & Fetal Medicine of National Health Commission of China, Shandong Provincial Maternal and Child Health Care Hospital affiliated to Qingdao University, Jinan, Shandong, China.
Background:
The relationship between noncoding RNAs (ncRNAs) and human diseases has been a hot topic of research, but the study of ncRNAs in cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) is still in its infancy. PIWI-interacting RNA (piRNA), a small ncRNA that binds to the PIWI protein to maintain genome stability by silencing transposons, was widely studied in germ lines and stem cells. In recent years, piRNA has been shown to be involved in key events of multiple CVDs through various epigenetic modifications, revealing the potential value of piRNA as a new biomarker or therapeutic target.
Conclusion:
This review explores origin, degradation, function, mechanism and important role of piRNA in CVDs, and the promising therapeutic targets of piRNA were summarized. This review provide a new strategy for the treatment of CVDs and lay a theoretical foundation for future research.
Key Points:
piRNA can be used as a potential therapeutic target and biomaker in CVDs. piRNA influences apoptosis, inflammation and angiogenesis by regulating epigenetic modificaions. Critical knowledge gaps remain in the unifying piRNA nomenclature and PIWI-independent function.
Related Concept Videos
piRNA - Piwi-interacting RNAs
Experimental RNAi
RNA Interference
This process occurs naturally in cells, often through the activity of genomically-encoded microRNAs. Researchers can take advantage of this mechanism by introducing synthetic RNAs to deactivate specific genes for research or therapeutic purposes. For example, RNAi could be used...
siRNA - Small Interfering RNAs
In the cytoplasm, siRNA is processed from a double-stranded RNA, which comes from either endogenous DNA transcription or exogenous sources like a virus. This double-stranded RNA is then cleaved by the...
RNA Editing

