Circulating microRNA as a Biomarker for Coronary Artery Disease

Abstract

Coronary artery disease (CAD) is the leading cause of sudden cardiac death in adults, and new methods of predicting disease and risk-stratifying patients will help guide intervention in order to reduce this burden. Current CAD detection involves multiple modalities, but the consideration of other biomarkers will help improve reliability. The aim of this narrative review is to help researchers and clinicians appreciate the growing relevance of miRNA in CAD and its potential as a biomarker, and also to suggest useful miRNA that may be targets for future study. We sourced information from several databases, namely PubMed, Scopus, and Google Scholar, when collating evidentiary information. MicroRNAs (miRNA) are short, noncoding RNAs that are relevant in cardiovascular physiology and pathophysiology, playing roles in cardiac hypertrophy, maintenance of vascular tone, and responses to vascular injury. CAD is associated with changes in miRNA expression profiles, and so are its risk factors, such as abnormal lipid metabolism and inflammation. Thus, they may potentially be biomarkers of CAD. Nevertheless, there are limitations in using miRNA. These include cost and the presence of several confounding factors that may affect miRNA profiles. Furthermore, there is difficulty in the normalisation of miRNA values between published studies, due to pre-analytical variations in samples.

MicroRNAs in Hypertrophic, Arrhythmogenic and Dilated Cardiomyopathy

“…MiRNAs are biomolecules with a crucial role in the physiological development of the heart and are involved in cardiovascular diseases such as coronary artery diseases (CAD), leading SCD cause in adult subjects [ 7 ], heart failure and left ventricular hypertrophy [ 8 ], atrial fibrillation [ 9 ] and stroke [ 10 ].…”

Global Trends in Research on Cell-Free Nucleic Acids in Obstetrics and Gynecology during 2017–2021

“…In future studies, the alignment of DNA methylation, fragmentome, and topological analysis of cell-free DNA in a targeted or genome-wide manner is expected to have a beneficial impact on clinical practice [ 15 ]. In diseases with metabolic disorders, such as type 2 diabetes [ 16 , 17 ] and coronary artery disease [ 18 ], there are also corresponding cells, such as pancreatic β-cell, whose cell-free DNA fragments are modified, making these cells potential biomarkers of the diseases.…”

Circulating Biomarkers Reflecting Destabilization Mechanisms of Coronary Artery Plaques: Are We Looking for the Impossible?

“…In a study by He et al, plasma levels of miRNA-21 correlated with several indicators of plaque instability, such as the size of the largest core area, thickness of the fibrous cap, and the lipid pool and the number of macrophages [142]. Several other studies demonstrated that miRNA-21 was upregulated in both patients with ACS and patients with ischemic stroke, as well as in stable CAD [143][144][145]. Apart from miRNA-100, more miRNAs have been recently associated with plaque burden (miR-126, miR-145, miR-155, and miR-29b).…”