Abstract
Atherosclerosis (AS) is the main cause of coronary heart disease, cerebral infarction, and peripheral vascular disease, which comprise serious hazards to human health. Atherosclerosis is characterized by the deposition of lipids on the interior walls of blood vessels, causing an inflammatory response of immune cells, endothelial cells, and smooth muscle cells, and a proliferation cascade reaction. Despite years of research, the underlying pathogenesis of AS is not fully defined. Recent advances in our understanding of the molecular mechanisms by which non-coding RNA influences the initiation and progression of AS have shown that long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) regulate important stages in the atherosclerotic process. In this review, we summarize current knowledge of lncRNAs, which influence the development of AS. We review the regulatory processes of lncRNAs on core stages of atherosclerotic progression, including lipid metabolism, inflammation, vascular cell proliferation, apoptosis, adhesion and migration, and angiogenesis. A growing body of evidence suggests that lncRNAs have great potential as new therapeutic targets for the treatment of vascular diseases.
Highlights
Atherosclerosis (AS) is an important risk factor for cardiovascular and cerebrovascular events including myocardial infarction and cerebral infarction (Lu et al, 2015; Sun W. et al, 2018)
Bao et al (2018) found that in human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) treated with oxidized low-density lipoprotein (ox-LDL), the highly expressed long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) LINC00657 can attenuate the inhibitory effect of miR-5903p on hypoxia-inducible factor-1α (HIF-1α) and upregulate VEGF, MMP-2, and MMP-9 expression to promote endothelial cell proliferation, migration, and angiogenesis
Growing evidence suggests that lncRNAs play an important role and may become effective targets for intervention in AS-related cardiovascular diseases (Figure 1)
Summary
Atherosclerosis (AS) is an important risk factor for cardiovascular and cerebrovascular events including myocardial infarction and cerebral infarction (Lu et al, 2015; Sun W. et al, 2018). Long non-coding RNA molecules (lncRNAs) have been found to play a variety of biological functions in the vascular system, such as promoting apoptosis of endothelial cells (Wang J. et al, 2015), inhibiting the migration of vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs; Bell et al, 2014; Zhang et al, 2018), and activating apolipoprotein A1 (APOA1)-mediated macrophage cholesterol efflux (Hu et al, 2014; Pan, 2017). Kumarswamy et al (2014) reported that mitochondrial lncRNA uc022bqs. (LIPCAR) is associated with cardiac remodeling and chronic heart failure and may be a potential biomarker These studies have identified the functional relevance of lncRNAs in cardiovascular disease and helped to delineate the important role played by lncRNAs in AS thrombotic events. Hu et al (2014) found that the highly expressed lncRNA DYNLRB2-2 can upregulate the expression of the G protein coupled receptor 119 (GPR119), and ABCA1 through the glucagon-like polypeptide receptor signaling pathway, activating the APOA1-mediated cholesterol
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