The correlations of circulating microRNA-133a with the risk and severity of coronary heart disease

Objective: Coronary heart disease (CHD) is a very common health problem worldwide with high morbidity and mortality. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small single stranded non-coding RNA molecules and can modulate gene expression. The objective of this study was to evaluate the correlation of miRNAs expression with the risk and severity of CHD. Methods: Plasma samples were collected from patients with CHD (n = 79) and controls (n = 63) to measure expression of miRNA92a, miRNA21, miRNA125b, miRNA133a and miRNA133b by qRT-PCR. Correlation of miRNA-133a expression with risk and Gensini score of CHD was performed by statistical analysis. Results: MiRNA-133a level was highly increased in plasma samples from patients with CHD compared with controls (0.61 (0.28-1.02) vs. 0.45 (0.22-0.85), P = 0.047). ROC analysis for miRNA-133a showed that the AUC was 0.597 (95% CI: 0.504 +/- 0.691) for miRNA-133a, with a sensitivity of 29.1% and specificity of 92.5% at best cut off. And univariable logistic regression revealed that circulating miRNA-133a level was a risk factor of CHD (OR: 2.565, 95% CI: 1.105-5.954, P = 0.028). Moreover, there was a positive correlation between miR-133a expression and Gensini score in patients with CHD (r = 0.303, P = 0.007). Conclusion: Circulating miRNA-133a level was associated with the risk and severity of CHD, and might be used as a novel biomarker for CHD in the future.