RNA binding proteins (RBPs) are the best regulator in determining the fate of mRNA that plays an important role in numerous cellular functions. RBPs are present in either the cytoplasm or nucleus or in both places of the cell. Due to its importance in the biological functions, numerous new findings have been recently revealed about RBPs. The interaction of the RBPs begins with mRNA transcription and remains bound permanently or transiently to the mRNA, and it regulates the splicing, processing, transport and localization of RNA. The regulation of gene expression occurs at multiple levels, including transcription, mRNA stability and translation. HuR is one of the well-characterized RBPs; it primarily stabilizes mRNAs and is also known as RNA stabilizing protein (RSP). HuR was first described in Drosophila as being in the embryonic lethal abnormal vision (ELAV) family of Hu proteins, which comprise the human antigen R (HuR or HuA), HuB, HuC and HuD [1]. Among these, HuB, HuC and HuD are predominantly expressed in the nervous system and are also called as neuronal Hu proteins [2].

The modulation of the biosynthetic regulation of HuR protein is the key step in developing new strategies in order to treat various diseases, including cardiac diseases. The mRNA itself contains sequence specific information that determines the stability. It is now well established that the key elements that influence the mRNA stability and translational regulations are the turnover and translation regulatory RNA binding proteins (TTR-RBPs) and noncoding RNAs such as micro RNAs (miRNAs), long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs), small nucleolar RNAs (snoRNAs), small cajal body specific RNAs (scaRNAs) and circular RNAs (circRNAs) of labile genes [3]. This regulation is mediated by the three categories (class 1, 2, and 3) of AU-rich elements (AREs) located in the 3′ untranslated region (UTR), but HuR is also found to interact with U-and AU-rich sequences in the 5′ UTR of the target genes [2]. Most RSPs have multiple RNA targets, and it is extremely challenging to discover the mechanism behind their functions [4]. Characteristically, RSPs bind to ARE sequence