Overexpression of the long noncoding RNA NEAT1 protects against As2O3-induced injury of cardiomyocyte by inhibiting the miR-124/NF-κB signaling pathway

Arsenic trioxide: applications, mechanisms of action, toxicity and rescue strategies to date

Arsenical medicine has obtained its status in traditional Chinese medicine for more than 2,000 years. In the 1970s, arsenic trioxide was identified to have high efficacy and potency for the treatment of acute promyelocytic leukemia, which promoted many studies on the therapeutic effects of arsenic trioxide. Currently, arsenic trioxide is widely used to treat acute promyelocytic leukemia and various solid tumors through various mechanisms of action in clinical practice; however, it is accompanied by a series of adverse reactions, especially cardiac toxicity. This review presents a comprehensive overview of arsenic trioxide from preclinical and clinical efficacy, potential mechanisms of action, toxicities, and rescue strategies for toxicities to provide guidance or assistance for the clinical application of arsenic trioxide.

The Role of microRNAs in Arsenic-Induced Human Diseases: A Review

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are noncoding RNAs with 20-22 nucleotides, which are encoded by endogenous genes and are capable of targeting the majority of human mRNAs. Arsenic is regarded as a human carcinogen, which can lead to many adverse health effects including diabetes, skin lesions, kidney disease, neurological impairment, male reproductive injury, and cardiovascular disease (CVD) such as cardiac arrhythmias, ischemic heart failure, and endothelial dysfunction. miRNAs can act as tumor suppressors and oncogenes via directly targeting oncogenes or tumor suppressors. Recently, miRNA dysregulation was considered to be an important mechanism of arsenic-induced human diseases and a potential biomarker to predict the diseases caused by arsenic exposure. Endogenic miRNAs such as miR-21, the miR-200 family, miR-155, and the let-7 family are involved in arsenic-induced human disease by inducing translational repression or RNA degradation and influencing multiple pathways, including mTOR/Arg 1, HIF-1α/VEGF, AKT, c-Myc, MAPK, Wnt, and PI3K pathways. Additionally, exogenous miRNAs derived from plants, such as miR-34a, miR-159, miR-2911, miR-159a, miR-156c, miR-168, etc., among others, can be transported from blood to specific tissue/organ systems in vivo. These exogenous miRNAs might be critical players in the treatment of human diseases by regulating host gene expression. This review summarizes the regulatory mechanisms of miRNAs in arsenic-induced human diseases, including cancers, CVD, and other human diseases. These special miRNAs could serve as potential biomarkers in the management and treatment of human diseases linked to arsenic exposure. Finally, the protective action of exogenous miRNAs, including antitumor, anti-inflammatory, anti-CVD, antioxidant stress, and antivirus are described.

Non-coding RNAs in cancer therapy-induced cardiotoxicity: Mechanisms, biomarkers, and treatments

As a result of ongoing breakthroughs in cancer therapy, cancer patients' survival rates have grown considerably. However, cardiotoxicity has emerged as the most dangerous toxic side effect of cancer treatment, negatively impacting cancer patients' prognosis. In recent years, the link between non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) and cancer therapy-induced cardiotoxicity has received much attention and investigation. NcRNAs are non-protein-coding RNAs that impact gene expression post-transcriptionally. They include microRNAs (miRNAs), long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs), and circular RNAs (circRNAs). In several cancer treatments, such as chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and targeted therapy-induced cardiotoxicity, ncRNAs play a significant role in the onset and progression of cardiotoxicity. This review focuses on the mechanisms of ncRNAs in cancer therapy-induced cardiotoxicity, including apoptosis, mitochondrial damage, oxidative stress, DNA damage, inflammation, autophagy, aging, calcium homeostasis, vascular homeostasis, and fibrosis. In addition, this review explores potential ncRNAs-based biomarkers and therapeutic strategies, which may help to convert ncRNAs research into clinical practice in the future for early detection and improvement of cancer therapy-induced cardiotoxicity.

Long non-coding RNAs and microRNAs as crucial regulators in cardio-oncology

Cancer is one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Significant improvements in the modern era of anticancer therapeutic strategies have increased the survival rate of cancer patients. Unfortunately, cancer survivors have an increased risk of cardiovascular diseases, which is believed to result from anticancer therapies. The emergence of cardiovascular diseases among cancer survivors has served as the basis for establishing a novel field termed cardio-oncology. Cardio-oncology primarily focuses on investigating the underlying molecular mechanisms by which anticancer treatments lead to cardiovascular dysfunction and the development of novel cardioprotective strategies to counteract cardiotoxic effects of cancer therapies. Advances in genome biology have revealed that most of the genome is transcribed into non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs), which are recognized as being instrumental in cancer, cardiovascular health, and disease. Emerging studies have demonstrated that alterations of these ncRNAs have pathophysiological roles in multiple diseases in humans. As it relates to cardio-oncology, though, there is limited knowledge of the role of ncRNAs. In the present review, we summarize the up-to-date knowledge regarding the roles of long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) and microRNAs (miRNAs) in cancer therapy-induced cardiotoxicities. Moreover, we also discuss prospective therapeutic strategies and the translational relevance of these ncRNAs.

Long non-coding RNA NEAT1 contributes to lipopolysaccharide-induced inflammation and apoptosis of human middle ear epithelial cells via regulating the miR-301b-3p/TLR4 axis

Acute otitis media (AOM) is a common infectious disease in children that is accompanied by signs and symptoms of middle ear inflammation and infection. Previous studies have shown that the long non-coding (lnc)RNA nuclear-enriched abundant transcript 1(NEAT1) participates in various inflammatory conditions and plays an important regulatory role. The focus of the present study was the biological function of NEAT1 and underlying molecular mechanism in lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced human middle ear epithelial cells (HMEECs). The expression of NEAT1, miR-301b-3p and toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) protein were determined by reverse transcription-quantitative PCR and western blot assays, respectively. Dual-luciferase reporter assay was performed to investigate the combination of miR-301b-3p and NEAT1 or TLR4. In addition, cell viability, apoptosis and the levels of pro-inflammatory factors (IL-1β, TNF-α and IL-6) were measured by Cell Counting Kit-8 assay, flow cytometry and ELISA, respectively. Cell viability was significantly decreased, whereas apoptosis and inflammation were increased in LPS-stimulated HMEECs. Functional analyses demonstrated that NEAT1 was upregulated following LPS treatment, whereas knockdown of NEAT1 significantly increased cell viability and alleviated apoptosis and inflammation. Mechanistically, NEAT1 directly bound to and negatively regulated miR-301b-3p expression, whereas miR-301b-3p inhibitors abolished the inhibitory effect of NEAT1 knockdown on cell apoptosis and inflammation. As a target of miR-301b-3p, TLR4 was regulated by NEAT1 and miR-301b-3p. TLR4 overexpression alleviated NEAT1 silencing-induced inflammatory suppression. Rescue experiments demonstrated that NEAT1 promoted TLR4 expression by inhibiting miR-301b-3p. Collectively, the results of the present study suggested that NEAT1 may attenuate LPS-induced inflammation and apoptosis in HMEECs by modulating the miR-301b-3p/TLR4 axis, and may provide a new therapeutic target for the clinical treatment of AOM.

The Role of Long Non-coding RNAs in Sepsis-Induced Cardiac Dysfunction

Sepsis is a syndrome with life-threatening organ dysfunction induced by a dysregulated host response to infection. The heart is one of the most commonly involved organs during sepsis, and cardiac dysfunction, which is usually indicative of an extremely poor clinical outcome, is a leading cause of death in septic cases. Despite substantial improvements in the understanding of the mechanisms that contribute to the origin and responses to sepsis, the prognosis of sepsis-induced cardiac dysfunction (SICD) remains poor and its molecular pathophysiological changes are not well-characterized. The recently discovered group of mediators known as long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) have presented novel insights and opportunities to explore the mechanisms and development of SICD and may provide new targets for diagnosis and therapeutic strategies. LncRNAs are RNA transcripts of more than 200 nucleotides with limited or no protein-coding potential. Evidence has rapidly accumulated from numerous studies on how lncRNAs function in associated regulatory circuits during SICD. This review outlines the direct evidence of the effect of lncRNAs on SICD based on clinical trials and animal studies. Furthermore, potential functional lncRNAs in SICD that have been identified in sepsis studies are summarized with a proven biological function in research on other cardiovascular diseases.

Rab27A promotes cellular apoptosis and ROS production by regulating the miRNA-124-3p/STAT3/RelA signalling pathway in ulcerative colitis

Ulcerative colitis (UC) is a multifactorial inflammatory disease, and increasing evidence has demonstrated that the mechanism of UC pathogenesis is associated with excessive cellular apoptosis and reactive oxygen species (ROS) production. However, their function and molecular mechanisms related to UC remain unknown. In this study, Rab27A mRNA and protein were proven to be overexpressed in intestinal epithelial cells of UC patients and DSS‐induced colitis mice, compared with control (P < 0.05). And Rab27A silencing inhibits inflammatory process in DSS‐induced colitis mice (P < 0.05). Then, it was shown that knockdown of Rab27A suppressed apoptosis and ROS production through modulation of miR‐124‐3p, whereas overexpression of Rab27A promoted apoptosis and ROS production in LPS‑induced colonic cells. In addition, enhanced expression of miR‐124‐3p attenuated apoptosis and ROS production by targeting regulation of STAT3 in LPS‑induced colonic cells. Mechanistically, we found Rab27A reduced the expression and activity of miR‐124‐3p to activate STAT3/RelA signalling pathway and promote apoptosis and ROS production in LPS‑induced colonic cells, whereas overexpression of miR‐124‐3p abrogated these effects of Rab27A. More importantly, animal experiments illustrated that ectopic expression of Rab27A promoted the inflammatory process, whereas overexpression of miR‐124‐3p might interfere with the inflammatory effect in DSS‐induced colitis mice. In summary, Rab27A might modulate the miR‐124‐3p/STAT3/RelA axis to promote apoptosis and ROS production in inflammatory colonic cells, suggesting that Rab27A as a novel therapeutic target for the prevention and treatment of UC patients.