Rohit Bhattacharjee, Amity University, Kolkata.
Heart failure is the leading cause of mortality and human morbidity worldwide and remains a tremendous public health burden in the ageing population. Dilated cardiomyopathy which is characterized by the dilation and impaired contraction of both the ventricles, is the primary cause of HF and sudden cardiac death. In addition to non-genetic causes, genetic factors are increasingly identified for their roles in HF susceptibility. At present, mutations in more than 100 genes are linked to DCM. The aberrant expression of different RNA transcript variants has been observed in DCM.
A newly discovered class of RNAs called the circular RNAs (circRNAs) have been found to have important physiological and pathological roles. A de novo analysis was performed of the whole transcriptome data from 5 normal and 5 DCM human heart samples and comparing them with the results with circRNAs which have been previously reported in human, mouse and rat hearts. It was found that circRNAs were dysregulated in DCM, specifically the transcripts that originate from DCM-related gene loci, like TTN and RYR2. Additionally, the potential of cardiac circRNAs to sponge miRNAs having roles in heart disease was predicted. Interestingly, a novel class of circRNAs were detected, called read-through (rt)-circRNAs that are produced from exons of two different neighbouring genes. These rt-circRNAs can sponge multiple heart disease-related miRNAs and be observed to be dysregulated in DCM. This gives a valuable resource for exploring the function of circRNAs in human heart diseases establishing a functional pattern for the identification of novel circRNAs in other tissues.
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Source:
Ziaeian B, Fonarow GC. Epidemiology and aetiology of heart failure. Nat Rev Cardiol. 2016;13(6):368–78.
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