MicroRNAs (miRNAs) comprise a class of small, noncoding, untranslated RNAs that control expression of complementary target mRNAs. Though termed 'micro-RNAs', these small entities can easily create a 'macro' impact at cellular or even at organismal level, under physiological or pathological conditions. A minor change in their expression or regulation can cause (or prevent / protect against) a disease condition. miR-223 is known to be a platelet-enriched myeloid specific miRNA. However, our recent finding and many other studies have demonstrated a possible role for miR-223 in vascular smooth muscle cells and in cardiomyocytes. miR- 223 is proposed to play a cardioprotective and anti-inflammatory role and its expression is dysregulated in cardiovascular diseases (CVD) such as vascular calcification, acute myocardial infarction, diabetic and non-diabetic heart failure. Here, we provide an overview of the recent advancements in the field of miR-223 research and its involvement in cardiovascular pathophysiology. Additionally, with the help of bioinformatics analyses, web resources and data mining, we identified putative transcriptional regulators of miR-223 expression in cardiac and vascular cells. Finally, we attempted to correlate the altered expression of miR-223 in CVD with some of its known or predicted targets, which might have a possible role in miR-223 disease linkage.
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Rangrez et al. (2013) studied this question.