Cardiovascular complications of diabetes: role of non-coding RNAs in the crosstalk between immune and cardiovascular systems

Abstract

Diabetes mellitus, a group of metabolic disorders characterized by high levels of blood glucose caused by insulin defect or impairment, is a major risk factor for cardiovascular diseases and related mortality. Patients with diabetes experience a state of chronic or intermittent hyperglycemia resulting in damage to the vasculature, leading to micro- and macro-vascular diseases. These conditions are associated with low-grade chronic inflammation and accelerated atherosclerosis. Several classes of leukocytes have been implicated in diabetic cardiovascular impairment. Although the molecular pathways through which diabetes elicits an inflammatory response have attracted significant attention, how they contribute to altering cardiovascular homeostasis is still incompletely understood. In this respect, non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) are a still largely under-investigated class of transcripts that may play a fundamental role. This review article gathers the current knowledge on the function of ncRNAs in the crosstalk between immune and cardiovascular cells in the context of diabetic complications, highlighting the influence of biological sex in such mechanisms and exploring the potential role of ncRNAs as biomarkers and targets for treatments. The discussion closes by offering an overview of the ncRNAs involved in the increased cardiovascular risk suffered by patients with diabetes facing Sars-CoV-2 infection. Graphical Abstract

Modelling the Impact of NETosis During the Initial Stage of Systemic Lupus Erythematosus

“… 2022 ; Spinetti et al. 2022 ). Simulations of the concentrations of the two types of antigen are plotted in Figs.…”

Glycemic control and clinical outcomes in diabetic patients with heart failure and reduced ejection fraction: insight from ventricular remodeling using cardiac MRI

“…In a sense, these findings were not surprising, but we confirmed a more deteriorated LV dysfunction in these individuals by myocardial strain analysis. The increased risk of cardiovascular events associated with the highest HbA1c level in this study cohort may include both direct and indirect effects of hyperglycemia [ 20 , 21 ]. Notably, hypoglycemic treatments such as insulin and metformin were more frequently used in patients with poor glycemic control.…”

Type 2 diabetes mellitus aggravates coronary atherosclerosis in hypertensive individuals based on coronary CT angiography: a retrospective propensity score-based study

“…Traditionally, elevated blood pressure increases the pulsatile wall stress, thereby promoting elastin degradation and leading to long-term atherosclerosis; however, the opposite may be true that arterial stiffness may contribute to the progress of hypertension ( 3 ). It is known that hyperglycemia in patients with diabetes mellitus damages the cardiovascular system and is associated with low-grade inflammation and accelerated atherosclerosis ( 32 , 33 ). From this, the presence of T2DM may aggravate the adverse effect of hypertension and coronary atherosclerosis, which may explain the fact that T2DM was independently associated with the presence of multivessel disease in hypertensive patients in the present study.…”