Long Noncoding RNA: a New Contributor and Potential Therapeutic Target in Fibrosis

Abstract

Fibrosis is the excess deposition of extracellular matrix components which occur in multiple organs and ultimately leads to organ failure. Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) are a kind of noncoding RNAs longer than approximately 200 nucleotides with no protein-encoding capacity. A growing body of evidence suggests that lncRNAs are also involved in tissues fibrosis in several organs, such as lungs fibrosis, liver fibrosis, renal fibrosis and cardiac fibrosis. In this review, we summarized the current studies of lncRNAs in the process of fibrosis and hopefully aid in better understanding the molecular mechanism of fibrosis and provide a basis to explore new therapeutic targets of fibrosis.

Keywords::

• extracellular matrix
• fibrosis
• long noncoding RNAs

Financial & competing interests disclosure

The authors have received grants from the National Science Foundation of China (31100834) and the International Cooperation Founds of Shaanxi Province (2012KW-32–02). The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.

No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.

Additional information

Funding

The authors have received grants from the National Science Foundation of China (31100834) and the International Cooperation Founds of Shaanxi Province (2012KW-32–02). The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed. No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.