title: MicroRNAs in cardiovascular health: from order to disorder.
abstract: In the last decade, microRNAs (miRNAs) have revolutionized how we understand metabolism and disease. These small, 20- to 22-nucleotide RNA molecules fine-tune gene expression and can often coordinate multiple genes in a single pathway. Given the multifactorial nature of cardiovascular disease, it is perhaps not surprising that miRNAs have been shown to orchestrate many aspects of disease development, from modulating metabolic risk factors over a lifetime (eg, cholesterol and hormones) to controlling the response to an acute cardiovascular event (eg, inflammation and hypoxia). In this review, we discuss how miRNAs exert control over metabolic pathways that maintain vascular health and, when these pathways go awry, how miRNAs can be targeted for therapeutic modulation.
authors.affiliation: PhD, Assistant Professor, University of Ottawa Heart Institute-Biochemistry, 40 Ruskin Street, H4211, Ottawa, Ontario K1Y4W7, Canada. krayner@ottawaheart.ca.
authors.forename: Denuja
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Karunakaran
authors.forename: Katey J
authors.initials: KJ
authors.lastname: Rayner
mesh_terms: D005786:Gene Expression Regulation / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008659:Metabolic Diseases / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D035683:MicroRNAs / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D012307:Risk Factors; D014652:Vascular Diseases / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D035683:MicroRNAs