Emerging Roles of Circular RNAs in Vascular Smooth Muscle Cell Dysfunction.

Zuo Pu,Xiaohan Yang,Jingbo Lu

doi:10.3389/fgene.2021.749296

Abstract

Atherosclerosis is the major pathophysiological basis of cerebrovascular and cardiovascular diseases. Vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) constitute the main structure of vasculature and play important roles in maintaining vascular tone and blood pressure. Many biological processes and cellular signaling events involved in atherosclerogenesis have been shown to converge on deregulating VSMC functions. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying dysfunctional VSMC in atherosclerosis are still poorly defined. Recent evidence revealed that circular RNAs (circRNAs) are closely related to diseases such as degenerative diseases, tumor, congenital diseases, endocrine diseases and cardiovascular diseases. Several studies demonstrated that circRNAs (e.g., circACTA2, Circ-SATB2, circDiaph3, circ_0020397, circTET3, circCCDC66) played critical roles in the regulation of VSMC proliferation, migration, invasion, and contractile-to-synthetic phenotype transformation by sponging microRNAs (e.g., miR-548f-5p, miR-939, miR-148a-5p, miR-138, miR-351-5p, miR-342-3p). This review describes recent progress in the profiling of circRNAs by transcriptome analysis in VSMCs and their molecular functions in regulating VSMC proliferation and migration.

Highlights

Atherosclerosis is the major pathophysiological basis of cerebrovascular and cardiovascular diseases and can be attributed to the interactions of a myriad of risk factors (Wang et al, 2021a; Qi et al, 2021; Xuan et al, 2021)
Increasing number of studies have indicated that abnormal migration and proliferation of Vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) are common features of different vascular diseases, such as hypertension, vascular aneurysms, and atherosclerosis
CircACTA2 Sun et al identified a new circRNA known as circACTA2 that was transcribed from exons five to nine of α-SMA (α-smooth muscle actin) gene

Summary

Introduction

Atherosclerosis is the major pathophysiological basis of cerebrovascular and cardiovascular diseases and can be attributed to the interactions of a myriad of risk factors (Wang et al, 2021a; Qi et al, 2021; Xuan et al, 2021). Knockdown of circ_0002579 downregulated HMGA2 protein level and reduced the expression of a proliferation marker (i.e., PCNA) in VSMCs. CircACTA2 Sun et al identified a new circRNA known as circACTA2 that was transcribed from exons five to nine of α-SMA (α-smooth muscle actin) gene. MiR-148a-5p enhanced the expression of markers for contractile smooth muscle cells and suppressed VSMC migration and proliferation.

Results

Conclusion