Potential Clinical Implications of miR-1 and miR-21 in Heart Disease and Cardioprotection

Abstract

The interest in non-coding RNAs, which started more than a decade ago, has still not weakened. A wealth of experimental and clinical studies has suggested the potential of non-coding RNAs, especially the short-sized microRNAs (miRs), to be used as the new generation of therapeutic targets and biomarkers of cardiovascular disease, an ever-growing public health issue in the modern world. Among the hundreds of miRs characterized so far, microRNA-1 (miR-1) and microRNA-21 (miR-21) have received some attention and have been associated with cardiac injury and cardioprotection. In this review article, we summarize the current knowledge of the function of these two miRs in the heart, their association with cardiac injury, and their potential cardioprotective roles and biomarker value. While this field has already been extensively studied, much remains to be done before research findings can be translated into clinical application for patient’s benefit.

Circulating MicroRNA Expression Profiles in Patients with Stable and Unstable Angina

“…Furthermore, the Wnt pathway, which was also targeted in our study, is involved in endothelial injury, macrophage activation, and vascular smooth muscle migration, and these processes are closely associated with onset and progression of atherosclerosis ( 36 ). Previous studies showed that miR-1 is associated with cardiac injury and cardioprotection, and is increased in patients suffering from AMI ( 37 ). miR-142 is increased in atherosclerotic plaques and regulates oxLDL-induced apoptosis in macrophages; moreover, it can be used to predict major adverse cardiovascular events in CAD patients ( 38 ).…”

miR-129-5p ameliorates ischemia-reperfusion injury by targeting HMGB1 in myocardium

“…Since non-coding RNAs have been widely implicated in various cellular activities and disease etiologies, non-coding RNA-based gene therapy is considered as a new approach to treat them. In the heart, several miRNAs are dysregulated during cardiac I/R injury, which may be treated as key regulators or biomarkers in these cardiac diseases (Colpaert and Calore 2019;Kura et al 2020). For example, dysregulation of miR-1, miR-21, and miR-133 was observed in MI heart tissue.…”

“…Although the precise role of miR-1 is still uncertain in cardiac I/R injury, it is undeniable that miR-1 is closely related to the myocardial I/R processes, and may regulate the adaptive mechanisms after heart injury (Kura et al 2020). Other important regulators of cardiac I/R injury include miR-21 and miR-133, which are believed to exert cardioprotective functions in MI, mainly through inhibition of apoptosis (Colpaert and Calore 2019;Kura et al 2020). Combined with our study, down-regulated miR-129 was detected in vivo after I/R injury, when compared with the Sham group.…”

“…Endogenous microRNAs (miRNAs, ~22 nucleotides) have been studied extensively due to their powerful biological regulation of target genes at transcriptional and post-transcriptional levels, and are associated with various disease processes (Ha and Kim 2014;Pu et al 2019). In heart physiology, multiple miRNAs are aberrantly expressed during myocardial infarction (MI) and MI-related protective mechanisms, and are regarded as potential biomarkers or therapeutic targets for cardiac diseases (Colpaert and Calore 2019;Kura et al 2020). The identification and charac-terization of novel miRNAs implicated in cardiac regulation could uncover underlying molecular mechanisms of MI and myocardial reperfusion injury (Kura et al 2020).…”

“…In heart physiology, multiple miRNAs are aberrantly expressed during myocardial infarction (MI) and MI-related protective mechanisms, and are regarded as potential biomarkers or therapeutic targets for cardiac diseases (Colpaert and Calore 2019;Kura et al 2020). The identification and charac-terization of novel miRNAs implicated in cardiac regulation could uncover underlying molecular mechanisms of MI and myocardial reperfusion injury (Kura et al 2020). Recently, in myocardial cells, miR-129-5p was shown to inhibit hydrogen peroxide (H 2 O 2 )-induced cell autophagy and apoptosis, via a PI3K/Akt/mTOR signaling circuit, by targeting ATG14 (Zhang et al 2018).…”