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World J Cardiol. Feb 26, 2016; 8(2): 211-219
Published online Feb 26, 2016. doi: 10.4330/wjc.v8.i2.211
Novel epigenetic-based therapies useful in cardiovascular medicine
Claudio Napoli, Vincenzo Grimaldi, Maria Rosaria De Pascale, Linda Sommese, Teresa Infante, Andrea Soricelli
Claudio Napoli, Vincenzo Grimaldi, Maria Rosaria De Pascale, Linda Sommese, Division of Immunohematology, Transfusion Medicine and Transplant Immunology, Department of Internal Medicine and Specialistic Unit, Azienda Ospedaliera Universitaria (AOU), Second University of Naples, 80138 Naples, Italy
Claudio Napoli, Teresa Infante, Andrea Soricelli, Institute of Diagnostic and Nuclear Development (SDN), IRCCS, 80143 Naples, Italy
Author contributions: Napoli C, Grimaldi V, De Pascale MR, Infante T, Soricelli A and Sommese L scrutinized the scientific literature; Napoli C, Grimaldi V, De Pascale MR, Soricelli A and Sommese L wrote the paper.
Conflict-of-interest statement: No potential conflicts of interest. No financial support.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Vincenzo Grimaldi, MB, BiolD, Division of Immunohematology, Transfusion Medicine and Transplant Immunology, Department of Internal Medicine and Specialistic Unit, Azienda Ospedaliera Universitaria (AOU), Second University of Naples, Piazza L. Miraglia 2, 80138 Naples, Italy. vincenzo.grimaldi@policliniconapoli.it
Telephone: +39-081-5665067 Fax: +39-081-5665092
Received: July 30, 2015
Peer-review started: July 31, 2015
First decision: September 16, 2015
Revised: December 11, 2015
Accepted: December 16, 2015
Article in press: December 18, 2015
Published online: February 26, 2016
Processing time: 206 Days and 15.9 Hours
Core Tip

Core tip: Recent evidence suggests that specific epigenetic regulatory mechanisms play key roles in cardiac differentiation, homeostasis, injury response, and disease development. Drug therapies that work via epigenetic mechanisms are currently limited to antineoplastic agents; large controlled trials are required to establish whether current possible candidate antisense microRNAs or histone deacetylase inhibitors could offer better therapeutic benefits in cardiovascular disease. We review recent findings on the epigenetic control of several cardiovascular diseases and the new challenges for therapeutic strategies in cardiovascular diseases.