Non-coding RNAs in Ischemic Stroke: Roles in the Neuroinflammation and Cell Death

Abstract

Ischemic stroke is one of the leading causes of death and long-term disability worldwide. As an important class of pervasive genes involved in many pathophysiological processes of ischemic stroke, non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) have received attention in the past decades. ncRNAs are a class of functional RNAs that regulate gene expression in a post-transcriptional manner, and including microRNAs, long non-coding RNAs, and circular RNAs. Several studies have deciphered that ncRNAs have a key role in the ischemic stroke-induced neuroinflammation and cell death via different molecules and pathways. Thus, ncRNAs show great promise as novel molecular targets in ischemic stroke. In this article, we provide an updated review of the current state of our knowledge about the roles of different types of ncRNAs in neuroinflammation and cell death following ischemic stroke, which may facilitate the translation of ncRNAs research into clinical practice to improve the clinical outcome of stroke therapy.