Oxidative stress (OS) refers to the enhancement of oxidation and the decreased of related antioxidant enzymes activity under pathological conditions, resulting in relatively excess reactive oxygen species (ROS), causing cytotoxicity, which leads to tissue damage and is linked to neurodegenerative diseases, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, cancers, and many other pathologies. As an important intracellular signaling molecule, ROS can regulate numerous physiological actions, such as vascular reactivity and neuronal function. According to several studies, the uncontrolled production of ROS is related to vascular injury. The growing evidence revealing how traditional risk factors translate into ROS and lead to vasculitis and other vascular diseases. In this review, we sought to mainly discuss the role of ROS and antioxidant mechanisms in vascular-related diseases, especially cardiovascular and common macrovascular diseases.

Aortic dissection (AD) is a fatal cardiovascular disease. It is caused by a rupture of the aortic intima or bleeding of the aortic wall that leads to the separation of different aortic wall layers. Patients with untreated AD have a mortality rate of 1–2% per hour after symptom onset. Therefore, effective biomarkers and therapeutic targets are needed to reduce AD-associated mortality. With the development of molecular technology, researchers have begun to explore the pathogenesis of AD at gene and protein levels, and have made some progress, but the pathogenesis of AD remains unclear. Non-coding RNAs, such as microRNAs, lncRNAs, and circRNAs, have been identified as basic regulators of gene expression and are found to play a key role in the pathogenesis of AD. Thus, providing a theoretical basis for developing these non-coding RNAs as clinical biomarkers and new therapeutic targets for AD in the future. Previous studies on the pathogenesis of AD focused on miRNAs, but recently, there have been an increasing number of studies that explore the role of lncRNAs, and circRNAs in AD. This review summarizes the existing knowledge on the roles of various non-coding RNAs in the pathogenesis of AD, discusses their potential role as clinical biomarkers and therapeutic targets, states the limitations of existing evidence, and recommends future avenues of research on the pathogenesis of AD.

Background: The indications and outcome of surgery for Acute type A aortic dissection (ATAAD) in elderly patients are still debated, especially when they were above 80 years old.  Case presentation: This report describes the case of an octogenarian patient with ATAAD who underwent total arch replacement (TAR) combined with stented elephant trunk (SET) implantation. Conclusion: Emergent surgery should be performed on the ATAAD octogenarians without serious preoperative complications. Acceptable outcomes could be received by total arch replacement combined with SET implantation.