Leukocyte Telomere Length as a Molecular Biomarker of Coronary Heart Disease

Abstract

Background. This work is a review of preclinical and clinical studies of the role of telomeres and telomerase in the development and progression of coronary heart disease (CHD). Materials and methods. A search for full-text publications (articles, reviews, meta-analyses, Cochrane reviews, and clinical cases) in English and Russian was carried out in the databases PubMed, Oxford University Press, Scopus, Web of Science, Springer, and E-library electronic library using keywords and their combinations. The search depth is 11 years (2010–2021). Results. The review suggests that the relative leukocyte telomere length (LTL) is associated with the development of socially significant and widespread cardiovascular diseases such as CHD and essential hypertension. At the same time, the interests of researchers are mainly focused on the study of the relative LTL in CHD. Conclusions. Despite the scientific and clinical significance of the analyzed studies of the relative length of human LTL as a biological marker of cardiovascular diseases, their implementation in real clinical practice is difficult due to differences in the design and methodology of the analyzed studies, as well as differences in the samples by gender, age, race, and ethnicity. The authors believe that clinical studies of the role of the relative length of leukocyte telomeres in adult patients with coronary heart disease are the most promising and require large multicenter studies with a unified design and methodology.

RETRACTED: Leukocyte telomere length and obesity in children and adolescents: A systematic review and meta-analysis

“…With each cell division, the telomere length shortens and this shortening does not occur at a constant rate, but rather, rapidly declines from birth through age 4 ( Rufer et al, 1999 ; Gasmi et al, 2021 ). The normal telomere length of an adult human is approximately 10–15 thousand base pairs (bp), while the protruding part of the G-chain, including 150–200 bp, can bend and form a loop structure (T-loop) ( Zimnitskaya et al, 2022 ), telomeres shorten ~100 bp for each cell division as a result of incomplete replication and exposure to oxidative stress and inflammation ( Wojcicki et al, 2016a ).…”

A Unified Model of Age-Related Cardiovascular Disease

“…Contributing to the confusion, many studies analyze aging in cells that are not responsible for the disease [ 138 , 139 ]. Because of sample collection simplicity, circulating leukocytes rather than vascular endothelial cells are commonly analyzed for telomere attrition [ 140 , 141 , 142 , 143 , 144 , 145 , 146 , 147 , 148 , 149 ]. As might be expected, there is a rough correlation in telomere lengths between different tissues since the entire organism is undergoing progressive cell aging over time.…”

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“…In recent years, methods of early diagnosis of AMI and comorbid conditions have been improved, which can play an important role in a personalized approach to its therapy and prognosis of outcomes [5]. Of great interest to Russian and foreign researchers is the problem of developing and introducing into real clinical practice new sensitive and specific biochemical and molecular biomarkers of AMI and vascular cognitive disorders associated with AMI [6,7]. The most studied biomarkers of AMI that have found widespread use in clinical practice are cardiac troponins [8,9].…”