About this Research Topic

Background

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death globally. Progress in the diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of CVD essentially relies on the advancement of our knowledge to explain the complex pathophysiology underlying CVD in which gene expression re-programming plays a fundamental role. Emerging evidence highlights the impact of epigenetic regulation on the transition of gene expression patterns from physiological to pathological states. The epigenetic environment of a gene is determined by DNA methylation, histone modifications, and chromatin remodeling. Various writers, readers, and erasers for different epigenetic marks have been discovered, and their dysfunction tightly correlates with the development of CVD. Research elucidating epigenetic regulations in this field have, in turn, promoted novel drug discoveries to treat CVD.

Epigenetic regulation in different disease circumstances is highly dynamic. Advances in this field have extended into multiple disciplines, including single-cell technologies, non-coding RNAs, epitranscriptomics, synthetic biology, systematic biology, etc. The Identification of novel epigenetic players in CVD and how they act to fine-tune molecular processes would expand our understanding of the complexity of cardiovascular pathophysiology. Fundamental questions that still need answers include: How do epigenetic marks coordinate to establish gene expression homeostasis in the disease state? How do epigenetic modifiers respond to cardiovascular stress? To what extent does epigenetic remodeling contribute to the pathogenesis of CVD? Additionally, an expansion of the epigenetic research toolbox would facilitate future researches to identify novel druggable targets for the treatment of CVD.

The aim of the current Research Topic is to cover promising, recent, and novel research trends in the epigenetic regulations in CVD field. Areas to be covered in this Research Topic may include, but are not limited to:
1) Novel epigenetic players in CVDs such as hypertension, coronary atherosclerosis, ischemic cardiomyopathy, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, heart failure, etc.
2) Interplay between epigenetic modifiers and transcription factors, non-coding RNAs or signaling cascades.
3) Single-cell scale epigenetic regulation in CVD.
4) Systematic epigenetics research in CVD.
5) Novel epigenetic research tools developed from synthetic biology.
6) RNA modifications (i.e. epitranscriptomics) in CVD.
7) Epigenetic drugs in CVD and translation from bench to bedside.

Keywords: Epigenetics, Cardiovascular Disease, RNA, Gene Expression, Epigenetic Regulation

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