miRNA-208a in Acute Myocardial Infarction: Much more than a Cardiac Biomarker

Abstract

Adel H Mahmoud, Khaled A Baraka, Lamia H Ali, Aliaa M Hegazi, Amany M Mohamed, Alaa Eldin R Abdelrehim.

Ischemic heart disease is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Infarct size is the single most important predictor of adverse ventricular remodeling, and it is linearly dependent upon the amount of myocardial salvage by reperfusion. Lack of timely reperfusion, due to ineffective treatment or delayed presentation, leads to an unfavorable prognosis. Micro Ribo Nucleic Acids (miRNAs) are small non-coding RNAs ~22 nucleotides in length that function as guide molecules in RNA silencing. Targeting most protein-coding transcripts, miRNAs are involved in nearly all developmental and pathological processes in animals. The biogenesis of miRNAs is under tight control, and their dysregulation is associated with many human diseases. In cardiac diseases, including myocardial infarction (MI), expression of cardiac miRNAs is markedly altered which leads to deleterious effects associated with heart injury, arrhythmia, increased apoptosis, fibrosis, hypertrophy, and tissue remodeling. In acute MI, circulating levels of cardiac miRNAs are significantly elevated making them a promising diagnostic marker for early diagnosis of acute MI. The great cardio-specific capacity of these miRNAs is very helpful for enhancing regenerative properties and survival of stem cell and cardiac progenitor transplants and for reprogramming of mature non-cardiac cells to cardiomyocytes. in this review we will illustrate the role of miRNA-208a in human heart and its therapeutic implications.