Transcriptomics Research to Improve Cardiovascular Healthcare

Yvan Devaux and Lina Badimon discuss the EU-CardioRNA COST Action CA17129 Cardiovascular disease remains a major cause of mortality and disability in the modern world. Further translational research is needed to identify novel therapeutic targets and biomarkers to optimize healthcare and decrease the burden of cardiovascular disease. While proteins have been traditionally at the centre of most research projects, RNAs have received less attention. Yet, RNA molecules have the potential to aid in diagnosing, prognosticating, and treating patients with cardiovascular disease, in a personalized and sex-specific manner. Transcriptomics is the omics part dedicated to the study of the transcriptome, which represents the pool of RNA molecules present in cells or in an acellular compartment. While nearly 98% of human genes are transcribed into RNA molecules, very few (<3%) are able to encode proteins.1 This landmark discovery suggests that most of RNAs produced in cells might possess regulatory functions. Indeed, a large body of evidence acquired during the last decade supports the important regulatory roles of non-protein coding RNAs, better known as non-coding RNAs and classified as small (e.g. microRNAs) and long non-coding RNAs (linear or circular). For example, long non-coding RNAs are important regulators of cardiovascular development and ageing.2 Due to the complexity of RNA regulatory networks, it appeared evident that the regulatory RNA family extends beyond non-coding RNAs, hence the concept of regulatory RNAs.3 Tackling this complexity requires complementary expertise, hence the creation of the EU-CardioRNA COST Action.4