High AU content: a signature of upregulated miRNA in cardiac diseases

MicroRNAs have been implicated for the regulation of gene expression. These miRNA are a class of single stranded non coding RNAs, formed from endogenous transcripts and measure typically about 19-25 nucleotides in length. They are important regulators of the various biological and metabolic functions taking place in humans. Many miRNAs show tissue specific expression. Human heart is a complex organ which during various diseased and developed conditions shows differential expression of miRNA. Here, we overview the recent findings on miRNA in cardiac diseases and report the presence of high AU content in differentially expressed miRNA in developed and diseased condition of heart as compared to all the miRNA present in the human. A total of 905 human miRNA sequences taken from miRBase were computationally analyzed. Trend analysis was performed to study the influence of positional frequency of the nucleotides. This study will help us in understanding the significance of AU rich elements in miRNA during the development of cardiac diseases.