Emerging role of MicroRNAs and long noncoding RNAs in healthy and diseased lung

Abstract

Pulmonary hypertension (PH) is a complex and multifactorial disease. An inability to fully unravel the molecular complexities has led to various clinical challenges in developing new therapies for this disease. Noncoding RNAs (ncRNAs) are RNA molecules with limited ability of coding proteins. The amount of ncRNAs is up to 98% of the whole genome’s transcripts. Many ncRNAs with a regulatory function of genes have been identified to date and found to act at various steps along the protein biosynthetic process, which includes transcription, RNA maturation, translation, and protein degradation. These discoveries are fueling a new era in understanding the pathophysiology and therapeutic pathways of PH. In this chapter, we discuss the emerging role of noncoding RNAs in PH as well as other pulmonary diseases.