Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) and the molecular hallmarks of aging

Ioannis Grammatikakis¹, Amaresh C. Panda¹, Kotb Abdelmohsen¹, Myriam Gorospe¹

¹Laboratory of Genetics, National Institute on Aging-Intramural Research Program, NIH, Baltimore, MD 21224, USA

* * Equal contribution

Received: December 8, 2014Accepted: December 20, 2014Published: December 22, 2014

Copyright: © 2014 Grammatikakis et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Abstract

During aging, progressive deleterious changes increase the risk of disease and death. Prominent molecular hallmarks of aging are genomic instability, telomere attrition, epigenetic alterations, loss of proteostasis, cellular senescence, stem cell exhaustion, and altered intercellular communication. Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) play important roles in a wide range of biological processes, including age-related diseases like cancer, cardiovascular pathologies, and neurodegenerative disorders. Evidence is emerging that lncRNAs influence the molecular processes that underlie age-associated phenotypes. Here, we review our current understanding of lncRNAs that control the development of aging traits.