Myocardial Damage in Cardiovascular Disease: Circulating MicroRNA-208b and MicroRNA-499
Reporter: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN
Circulating MicroRNA-208b and MicroRNA-499 Reflect Myocardial Damage in Cardiovascular Disease
Maarten F. Corsten, MD, Robert Dennert, MD, Sylvia Jochems, BSc, Tatiana Kuznetsova, MD, PhD, Yvan Devaux, PhD, Leon Hofstra, MD, PhD, Daniel R. Wagner, MD, PhD, Jan A. Staessen, MD, PhD, Stephane Heymans, MD, PhD and Blanche Schroen, PhD
Author Affiliations
From the Center for Heart Failure Research (M.F.C., R.D., S.J., S.H., B.S.), Cardiovascular Research Institute, Maastricht, The Netherlands; the Division of Hypertension and Cardiovascular Rehabilitation (T.K., J.A.S.), Department of Cardiovascular Diseases, University of Leuven, Leuven, Belgium and Department of Epidemiology, Maastricht University Medical Center, Maastricht, The Netherlands; Centre de Recherche Public–Santé, Luxembourg (Y.D., D.R.W.), Luxembourg; Maastricht University Medical Center (L.H.), Maastricht, The Netherlands; and Centre Hospitalier Luxembourg (D.R.W.), Luxembourg.
Correspondence to Blanche Schroen, PhD, Center for Heart Failure Research, Cardiovascular Research Institute Maastricht, Universiteitssingel 50, 6229 ER Maastricht, The Netherlands. E-mail b.schroen@cardio.unimaas.nl
Drs Heymans and Schroen contributed equally to this work.
Abstract
Background— Small RNA molecules, called microRNAs, freely circulate in human plasma and correlate with varying pathologies. In this study, we explored their diagnostic potential in a selection of prevalent cardiovascular disorders.
Methods and Results— MicroRNAs were isolated from plasmas from well-characterized patients with varying degrees of cardiac damage:
(1) acute myocardial infarction,
(2) viral myocarditis,
(3) diastolic dysfunction, and
(4) acute heart failure.
Plasma levels of selected microRNAs, including heart-associated (miR-1, -133a, -208b, and -499), fibrosis-associated (miR-21 and miR-29b), and leukocyte-associated (miR-146, -155, and -223) candidates, were subsequently assessed using real-time polymerase chain reaction. Strikingly, in plasma from acute myocardial infarction patients, cardiac myocyte–associated miR-208b and -499 were highly elevated, 1600-fold (P<0.005) and 100-fold (P<0.0005), respectively, as compared with control subjects. Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis revealed an area under the curve of 0.94 (P<10−10) for miR-208b and 0.92 (P<10−9) for miR-499. Both microRNAs correlated with plasma troponin T, indicating release of microRNAs from injured cardiomyocytes. In viral myocarditis, we observed a milder but significant elevation of these microRNAs, 30-fold and 6-fold, respectively. Plasma levels of leukocyte-expressed microRNAs were not significantly increased in acute myocardial infarction or viral myocarditis patients, despite elevated white blood cell counts. In patients with acute heart failure, only miR-499 was significantly elevated (2-fold), whereas no significant changes in microRNAs studied could be observed in diastolic dysfunction. Remarkably, plasma microRNA levels were not affected by a wide range of clinical confounders, including age, sex, body mass index, kidney function, systolic blood pressure, and white blood cell count.
Conclusions— Cardiac damage initiates the detectable release of cardiomyocyte-specific microRNAs-208b and -499 into the circulation.
SOURCE:
Circulation: Cardiovascular Genetics. 2010; 3: 499-506
Published online before print October 4, 2010,
doi: 10.1161/ CIRCGENETICS.110.957415
This is very insightful. There is no doubt that there is the bias you refer to. 42 years ago, when I was postdocing in biochemistry/enzymology before completing my residency in pathology, I knew that there were very influential mambers of the faculty, who also had large programs, and attracted exceptional students. My mentor, it was said (although he was a great writer), could draft a project on toilet paper and call the NIH. It can’t be true, but it was a time in our history preceding a great explosion. It is bizarre for me to read now about eNOS and iNOS, and about CaMKII-á, â, ã, ä – isoenzymes. They were overlooked during the search for the genome, so intermediary metabolism took a back seat. But the work on protein conformation, and on the mechanism of action of enzymes and ligand and coenzyme was just out there, and became more important with the research on signaling pathways. The work on the mechanism of pyridine nucleotide isoenzymes preceded the work by Burton Sobel on the MB isoenzyme in heart. The Vietnam War cut into the funding, and it has actually declined linearly since.
A few years later, I was an Associate Professor at a new Medical School and I submitted a proposal that was reviewed by the Chairman of Pharmacology, who was a former Director of NSF. He thought it was good enough. I was a pathologist and it went to a Biochemistry Review Committee. It was approved, but not funded. The verdict was that I would not be able to carry out the studies needed, and they would have approached it differently. A thousand young investigators are out there now with similar letters. I was told that the Department Chairmen have to build up their faculty. It’s harder now than then. So I filed for and received 3 patents based on my work at the suggestion of my brother-in-law. When I took it to Boehringer-Mannheim, they were actually clueless.
This is very insightful. There is no doubt that there is the bias you refer to. 42 years ago, when I was postdocing in biochemistry/enzymology before completing my residency in pathology, I knew that there were very influential mambers of the faculty, who also had large programs, and attracted exceptional students. My mentor, it was said (although he was a great writer), could draft a project on toilet paper and call the NIH. It can’t be true, but it was a time in our history preceding a great explosion. It is bizarre for me to read now about eNOS and iNOS, and about CaMKII-á, â, ã, ä – isoenzymes. They were overlooked during the search for the genome, so intermediary metabolism took a back seat. But the work on protein conformation, and on the mechanism of action of enzymes and ligand and coenzyme was just out there, and became more important with the research on signaling pathways. The work on the mechanism of pyridine nucleotide isoenzymes preceded the work by Burton Sobel on the MB isoenzyme in heart. The Vietnam War cut into the funding, and it has actually declined linearly since.
A few years later, I was an Associate Professor at a new Medical School and I submitted a proposal that was reviewed by the Chairman of Pharmacology, who was a former Director of NSF. He thought it was good enough. I was a pathologist and it went to a Biochemistry Review Committee. It was approved, but not funded. The verdict was that I would not be able to carry out the studies needed, and they would have approached it differently. A thousand young investigators are out there now with similar letters. I was told that the Department Chairmen have to build up their faculty. It’s harder now than then. So I filed for and received 3 patents based on my work at the suggestion of my brother-in-law. When I took it to Boehringer-Mannheim, they were actually clueless.