Cardiovascular complications of diabetes : role of non-coding RNAs in the crosstalk between immune and cardiovascular systems

Funding Information: TT is funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) SFB1470/B07 and TRR267/B01 and by the European Union, ERC Grant REVERSE (GA101054460) and the EU grant Horizin 2020 Cardioregnix under agreement no. 825670. Funding Information: CE is supported (with relevance to this article) by a British Heart Foundation Chair (CH/15/1/31199) and programme grant (RG RG/20/9/35101) awards, while SB-AG is supported by a British Heart Foundation Transition Fellowship (awarded by the Imperial College BHF Centre of Excellence RE/18/4/34215). Funding Information: SN is funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (ISCIII) PI19/01714 and PI22/1083 co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), and by the Generalitat Valenciana CIAICO 2021/211. Funding Information: This article is based upon work from EU-CardioRNA COST Action CA17129 ( www.cardiorna.eu ) supported by COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology). Graphical abstract was created with BioRender.com online tool. Funding Information: GS and MM are supported by the Italian Ministry of Health (Ricerca Corrente to the IRCCS MultiMedica and The Italian Cardiology Network IRCCS RCR-2021-23671212). Funding Information: GK acknowledges lab support provided by grants from the Icelandic Research Fund (217946-051), Icelandic Cancer Society Research Fund and University of Iceland Research Fund. Funding Information: FM is supported by the Italian Ministry of Health (“Ricerca Corrente 2023”, RF-2019-12368521, The Italian Cardiology Network IRCCS RCR-2022-23682288, POS T4 CAL.HUB.RIA, cod. T4-AN-09), by Telethon Foundation (#4462 GGP19035A), AFM-Telethon (# 23054), EU Horizon 2020 (COVIRNA, Grant #101016072). Funding Information: AYN received funding from the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO - Women in STEM (2021–18992)). Funding Information: AJ was funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions grant agreement 893435. Funding Information: DdGC has received financial support from Instituto de Salud Carlos III (Miguel Servet 2020: CP20/00041) co-funded by the European Union. CIBERES (CB07/06/2008) is an initiative of the Instituto de Salud Carlos III. Funding Information: YD is funded by the EU Horizon 2020 project COVIRNA (Grant Agreement # 101016072), the National Research Fund (grants # C14/BM/8225223, C17/BM/11613033 and COVID-19/2020-1/14719577/miRCOVID), the Ministry of Higher Education and Research, and the Heart Foundation-Daniel Wagner of Luxembourg. Publisher Copyright: © 2023, The Author(s).Diabetes mellitus, a group of metabolic disorders characterized by high levels of blood glucose caused by insulin defect or impairment, is a major risk factor for cardiovascular diseases and related mortality. Patients with diabetes experience a state of chronic or intermittent hyperglycemia resulting in damage to the vasculature, leading to micro- and macro-vascular diseases. These conditions are associated with low-grade chronic inflammation and accelerated atherosclerosis. Several classes of leukocytes have been implicated in diabetic cardiovascular impairment. Although the molecular pathways through which diabetes elicits an inflammatory response have attracted significant attention, how they contribute to altering cardiovascular homeostasis is still incompletely understood. In this respect, non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) are a still largely under-investigated class of transcripts that may play a fundamental role. This review article gathers the current knowledge on the function of ncRNAs in the crosstalk between immune and cardiovascular cells in the context of diabetic complications, highlighting the influence of biological sex in such mechanisms and exploring the potential role of ncRNAs as biomarkers and targets for treatments. The discussion closes by offering an overview of the ncRNAs involved in the increased cardiovascular risk suffered by patients with diabetes facing Sars-CoV-2 infection.Peer reviewe