Up-Regulation of Cell-Free MicroRNA-1 and MicroRNA-221-3p Levels in Patients with Myocardial Infarction Undergoing Coronary Angiography

Purpose: Myocardial infarction (MI), known as a multifactorial disease, remains the predominant cause of mortality and sudden deaths annually. The current study aimed to measure the expression of microRNA-1 and microRNA-221-3p in MI patients.

Methods: In the current study, 100 healthy controls (with no history of heart disease) and 200 patients with MI were selected. Patients were divided into two groups based on angiography results: normal (no significant artery stenosis) and primary percutaneous coronary intervention (primary PCI, significant artery stenosis). The levels of microRNA-1 and microRNA-221-3p were quantified using real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction. The correlation between levels of microRNAs and the common cardiac markers were analyzed statistically.

Results: In comparison to fold change, microRNA-1 elevations were 8.5-fold in normal patients and 60-fold in patients with primary PCI; while microRNA-221-3p levels were 210- fold higher in primary PCI and 31.31-fold higher in normal cases compared with the healthy controls. Receiver operating characteristic analysis showed that the area under the curve (AUC) for circulating microRNA-1 and microRNA-221 were 0.903 and 0.958 in normal patients and 0.927 and 0.985 in primary PCI patients (p <0.0001), respectively. Pearson correlation (ρ) analysis showed that circulation of microRNA-1 correlated with serum levels of cardiac troponin I (CTnI) (ρ=0.24), creatinine (ρ =0.34), creatinine kinase-myocardial band (CK-MB) (ρ=0.31), and microRNA-221-3p was significantly correlated with serum levels of CTnI (ρ =0.6), creatinine (ρ=0.41), and CK-MB (ρ=0.37), (P <0.0001).

Conclusion: The study underscored the potential of microRNA-1 and microRNA-221-3p as informative biomarkers and positively correlated with artery stenosis in MI.