MicroRNAs and cardiovascular disease

According to the World Health Organization, cardiovascular diseases are the leading cause of death globally, taking an estimated 17.9 million lives each year, most of which are attributable to athero-sclerosis. Notably, the mechanisms that regulate atherosclerotic disease development and expression are not fully understood yet. MicroRNAs are small non-coding molecules of ribonucleic acid that regu-late the gene expression at the post-transcriptional level and play a key role in the pathophysiology of different cardiovascular diseases, including atherosclerosis. Moreover, circulating microRNAs have been studied as biomarkers of different diseases, and specific circulating microRNA profiles are asso-ciated with the presence of atherosclerosis of different arterial territories and multi-territorial athero-sclerosis. These issues are discussed in the book, including the core results of the translational re-search carried out by our group. Knowledge of microRNA profiles in such context provided insights into the pathophysiology of atherosclerosis and supports the potential clinical value of microRNAs as noninvasive biomarkers.