Could non-coding RNAs offer hope to people with pulmonary hypertension?

Long non-coding RNA control of MIR-143 and MIR-145 expression and function in pulmonary arterial hypertension

BHF Professor Andrew Baker and his colleagues at the University of Edinburgh are studying the importance of non-coding RNAs in pulmonary hypertension, a condition where the pressure rises in the blood vessels in the lungs, which can ultimately lead to heart failure. Until recently, scientists thought that the genetic material within a cell, the DNA, is transcribed into RNA, the RNA in turn encodes a protein, and the protein controls how the cell functions in health and disease. But we now know that the majority of RNA does not encode a protein, and this is called ‘non-coding RNA’. Some of these molecules have important functions in cells, tissues and organs. Professor Baker has shown that non-coding RNAs have an important role in pulmonary hypertension and believes they could be used to treat the disease. He has identified changes in a number of non-coding RNAs within the vascular smooth muscle cells and lung tissue of people with pulmonary hypertension. In this project, he wants to assess how these non-coding RNAs control the function of vascular smooth muscle cells in the lungs of people with pulmonary hypertension. He will assess their impact on disease development in mice with and without the disease, and will compare his findings with samples from patients. This project will reveal more about the role of non-coding RNAs in pulmonary hypertension and will assess whether targeting a drug or other intervention against them could offer patients a new treatment.