Atherosclerosis is a chronic inflammatory disease of the arterial wall, characterized by a change in the intima of the arteries in the form of focal lipid deposits and the formation of a fibrous lid. Atherosclerosis is considered as the main cause of myocardial infarction, ischemic stroke and chronic lower limb ischemia. The pathogenesis of atherosclerosis is complex, and genetic mechanisms of atherosclerosis have not been fully investigated. The recent studies have shown that microRNAs (miRNAs) can play a role in the development of atherosclerosis. MiRNAs are short, non-coding RNA molecules 1822 nucleotides in length that suppress gene expression at the post-transcriptional level by binding to the 3ʹ-untranslated region of mRNA targets. MiRNAs are involved in virtually all biological processes, including cell proliferation, apoptosis, and cell differentiation. MiRNAs control aging and dysfunction of endothelial cells, proliferation and migration of vascular smooth muscle cells, as well as cytokine synthesis and polarization of macrophages. In this paper, we focus on how miRNAs can influence the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis.

Pancreatic adenocarcinoma is considered one of the most aggressive cancers with high mortality and low 5-year survival rate. This is mainly due to its late detection. Complex anatomical location creates certain difficulties for imaging and puncture biopsy methods, while standard tumor markers do not have high sensitivity and specificity. Thus, the search for specific biomarkers for early diagnosis and prognosis of the disease, as well as monitoring patients with pancreatic cancer during treatment, is a priority to improve patient survival in this terminal disease. Liquid biopsy, which has recently gained a lot of attention including the study of free-circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) in plasma or serum, is a promising additional method of research. In this review, we will consider the latest findings from the ctDNA study as early and prognostic biomarkers for pancreatic cancer and monitoring the disease during treatment.

With rapid advances in high-performance genome analysis technology, studying of long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) has become a very popular topic in biomedical research. LncRNAs are a group of non-coding RNAs with a length of more than 200 nucleotides. LncRNAs play a fundamental role in cell proliferation and differentiation, and epigenetic regulation. Thus, studying lncRNAs will give a new understanding of gene regulation and will open up new possibilities for treating and diagnosing many diseases, including tumors. The identification of new molecular markers in the form of circulating lncRNAs will improve tumor detection, predicting the course of the disease, treatment planning, and diagnosing at the earliest signs of upcoming neoplastic transformation. Treatment of tumors, especially malignant ones, is also a difficult task. When surgery and chemotherapy are not effective, radiation therapy becomes the treatment of choice. Therefore, the possibility of lncRNAs being innovative therapeutic agents in tumors is a viable idea. However, the possibility of their use in modern clinical practice is limited due to the number of problems associated with significant differences between procedures for processing samples, methods of analysis, and especially strategies for standardizing results. Another problem for conducting studies on the profiling of lncRNAs expression is their large number and the diversity of their functions in tumors. Therefore, the solution of technological problems on the profiling of lncRNAs expression in tumors may open up new possibilities for the use of lncRNAs in modern clinical practice.

Cancer metastasis is a multistep process in which cancer cells leave the primary focus, survive in the bloodstream, and colonize in a distant organ. This is the main cause of cancer morbidity and mortality. It is mediated by a multistep process called the metastatic cascade. Initial steps include local invasion and migration, angiogenesis, epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMF) and intravasation. Non-coding RNAs represent a large part of the transcriptome, with long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) constituting a large proportion. The perception of long non-coding RNAs as fragments of RNA and transcriptional noise has been constantly replaced by their role as confirmed targets for various physiological processes in the past few years. A large amount of evidence has revealed their role at all stages of carcinogenesis and in modulating metastasis through regulatory networks. In this review, we focus on the role of long non-coding RNAs as promoters or inhibitors in the main stages of the metastatic cascade, and in particular consider their role in the metastasis of malignant tumors to the brain.