Abstract
Post-transcriptional RNA modifications can alter RNA structure, stability, localization, and function. Adenosine-to-inosine (A-to-I) RNA editing is a post-transcriptional modification that converts adenosine nucleotides in RNA to inosine nucleotides, catalyzed by adenosine-deaminase-acting-on-RNA (ADAR) enzymes. Recent studies have shown that A-to-I RNA editing is required for cardiovascular development and homeostasis whilst aberrant RNA editing plays a role in cardiovascular diseases. This article provides an overview of A-to-I RNA editing events that have been implicated in cardiovascular biology and disease. It also discusses harnessing RNA editing for cardiovascular disease biomarker development and engineering RNA editing for cardiovascular disease treatment.
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Acknowledgements
S.Y. thanks funding from the British Heart Foundation (RG/16/13/32609, RG/19/9/34655, PG/16/9/31995, PG/18/73/34059, and SP/19/2/344612), the National Medical Research Council of Singapore (MOH-001229 and MOH-001479), and the National University of Singapore/National University Health System (NUHSRO/2022/004/Startup/01). C.U.S. was a Leicester British Heart Foundation Accelerator Award (AA/18/3/34220) Research Fellow. D.G.M. is supported by the British Heart Foundation Research Excellence Award (RE/24/130031), the van Geest Foundation Heart and Cardiovascular Diseases Research Fund, and was awarded a BHF Accelerator Early Careers Researcher Interdisciplinary Fellowship and pump-priming funding from the Leicester British Heart Foundation Accelerator Award (AA/18/3/34220). This work falls under the portfolio of research conducted within the National Institute for Health Research Leicester Biomedical Research Centre and the Leicester BHF Centre of Research Excellence.
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Huang, X., Solomon, C., McVey, D.G. et al. RNA editing in cardiovascular health and disease. Commun Biol (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-026-09680-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-026-09680-1
