Long non coding RNA H19: An emerging therapeutic target in fibrosing diseases

Abstract

Fibrosis is characterised by excessive deposition of the extracellular matrix (ECM) and develops because of fibroblast differentiation during the process of inflammation. There are few effective treatment options for this diseases due to the aetiology of fibrosis is not completely clarified. Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs), a type of ncRNA with a length of greater than 200 nucleotides without evident protein coding function, are important regulators of most biological and pathological processes, including participation, regulation or mediation of disease development. Among them, H19 is recently discovered as a class of lncRNAs which is related to fibrotic disease and inflammation. These observations implied a potential role for H19 as a promising therapeutic targets for treatment of fibrotic diseases. In this review, we will describe the characteristics of H19 and summarise recent advances in the mechanisms of H19 in the process of fibrosis. Finally, we will succinctly discuss the recent progress of the involvement of H19 in the development and pathogenesis of fibrosis diseases.

Keywords:

• Long non coding RNA H19
• H19
• therapeutic
• fibrosis
• fibrotic diseases

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Additional information

Funding

This work were partly supported by grants from the Anhui provincial major project of quality engineering teaching research in 2016 [code:2016jyxm0378], Key Project of the Education Department of Anhui Province Natural Science Research [code: KJ2017A164], Data Science Centre of school of Public Health of Anhui Medical University and Anhui provincial laboratory of population health & major disease screening and diagnosis.