Long noncoding RNAs and circular RNAs as heart failure biomarkers

Heart failure (HF) is the most prominent cardiovascular disease resulting from an altered cardiac homeostasis. An outstanding progress in the high-throughput sequencing technologies has demonstrated that the dynamical changes in long noncoding RNA (lncRNA) and circular RNA (circRNA) expression profiles are strongly correlated with the genesis and progression of HF. Although their function and regulation in cardiovascular system are still ambiguous, several lncRNAs and circRNAs have emerged as promising biomarkers for HF suggesting that the human noncoding secretome may provide an interesting pool of RNA molecules for the treatment of heart failure. Integration of current knowledge of lncRNAs and circRNAs with protein-coding and other noncoding genes is essential to deepen our understanding of the signaling pathways and transcriptional events involved in the pathogenesis of cardiovascular disease including HF. Undoubtedly, as much as we learn about expression patterns of lncRNAs and circRNAs, the higher chance for an improved diagnosis and therapy and better prognosis will be.