Non-coding RNAs in cardiac hypertrophy

Abstract

Heart failure is one of the largest contributors to disease burden and healthcare outflow in the Western world. Despite significant progress in the treatment of heart failure, disease prognosis remains very poor, with the only curative therapy still being heart transplantation. To counteract the current situation, efforts have been made to better understand the underlying molecular pathways in the progression of cardiac disease towards heart failure, and to link the disease to novel therapeutic targets such as non-coding RNAs. The non-coding part of the genome has gained prominence over the last couple of decades, opening a completely new research field and establishing different non-coding RNAs species as fundamental regulators of cellular functions. Not surprisingly, their dysregulation is increasingly being linked to pathology, including to cardiac disease. Pre-clinically, non-coding RNAs have been shown to be of great value as therapeutic targets in pathological cardiac remodelling and also as diagnostic/prognostic biomarkers for heart failure. Therefore, it is to be expected that non-coding RNA-based therapeutic strategies will reach the bedside in the future and provide new and more efficient treatments for heart failure. Here, we review recent discoveries linking the function and molecular interactions of non-coding RNAs with the pathophysiology of cardiac hypertrophy and heart failure.

Keywords: heart failure; hypertrophy; intracellular communication; non-coding RNA.