Review|Volume 14, Issue 19|pp 8110—8136

RNA modifications in aging-associated cardiovascular diseases

Xinyu Yang^1,^2,³, Priyanka Gokulnath³, H. Immo Lehmann³, Zhitao Hou^2,⁴, Sun Yang², Liangzhen You², Guoxia Zhang⁵, Yanwei Xing⁵, Ji Lei⁶, Guoping Li³, Shuwen Guo¹, Hongcai Shang²

¹Fangshan Hospital Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, Beijing 102400, China
²Key Laboratory of Chinese Internal Medicine of the Ministry of Education, Dongzhimen Hospital Affiliated with Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, Beijing 100700, China
³Cardiovascular Research Center, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02114, USA
⁴College of Basic Medical and Sciences, Heilongjiang University of Chinese Medicine, Harbin 150040, Heilongjiang, China
⁵Guang’an Men Hospital, Chinese Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, Beijing 100053, China
⁶Center for Transplantation Science, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02114, USA

* Equal contribution

Received: May 7, 2022Accepted: September 17, 2022Published: September 29, 2022

https://doi.org/10.18632/aging.204311

Copyright: © 2022 Yang et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Abstract

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide that bears an enormous healthcare burden and aging is a major contributing factor to CVDs. Functional gene expression network during aging is regulated by mRNAs transcriptionally and by non-coding RNAs epi-transcriptionally. RNA modifications alter the stability and function of both mRNAs and non-coding RNAs and are involved in differentiation, development, and diseases. Here we review major chemical RNA modifications on mRNAs and non-coding RNAs, including N6-adenosine methylation, N1-adenosine methylation, 5-methylcytidine, pseudouridylation, 2′ -O-ribose-methylation, and N7-methylguanosine, in the aging process with an emphasis on cardiovascular aging. We also summarize the currently available methods to detect RNA modifications and the bioinformatic tools to study RNA modifications. More importantly, we discussed the specific implication of the RNA modifications on mRNAs and non-coding RNAs in the pathogenesis of aging-associated CVDs, including atherosclerosis, hypertension, coronary heart diseases, congestive heart failure, atrial fibrillation, peripheral artery disease, venous insufficiency, and stroke.