[MicroRNAs as Biomarkers of Cardiovascular Diseases].

The fact that microRNAs play an important role in the development and pathogenesis of cardiovascular disease is beyond doubt. This article provides a brief overview of recent data that relate to microRNA expression in various cardiovascular diseases. Detecting significant changes in the level of expression of these molecules in various diseases means that microRNAs can be considered to be potential biomarkers of human pathologies including heart failure. Studying the relationship between the mechanisms of cardiovascular disease and the level of expression of a variety of microRNAs, as well as establishing their exact relationships with the genes is an urgent problem and requires further research.

[Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors-alpha (PPAR-alpha) and chronic heart failure: is there a reason to discuss the metabolic strategy of treatment?].

Despite improved prognosis in patients with heart failure (HF) treated with neurohumoral activation-suppressing drugs (such as angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors, angiotensin II receptor antagonists, beta-adrenergic receptor antagonists, aldosterone receptor antagonists), mortality from heart failure remains high, myocardial contractile dysfunction progresses, and the left ventricle becomes enlarged. This leads to the need to elaborate novel approaches to treating HF. The latter is obviously due to impaired myocardial energy substrate metabolism. The mechanisms underlying this phenomenon are numerous and complex. These include reduced myocardial expression and activity of key free fatty acid oxidative enzymes. The expression of these enzymes is controlled by peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors-alpha (PPAR-alpha). Thus, PPAR-alpha activation is a direct method to regulate myocardial fatty acid metabolism. Evidence for the efficiency of therapeutic strategies based on the fact that fatty acid metabolism may be modulated is controversial, which indicates that there may be more complex molecular/biochemical changes than supposed before. The data available in the literature suggest the promises of the above strategy and its serious therapeutic potential.