Altered levels of serum miR-133a in acute coronary syndrome and stable coronary artery disease patients

Objective To investigate altered levels and clinical significance of serum miR-133a in patients with acute coronary syndrome (ACS) and stable coronary artery disease (SCAD). Methods Retrospective study. Serum miR-133a levels were determined by TaqMan quantitative reverse-transcription PCR assay in 64 ACS, 62 SCAD patients who were admitted to Jinling Hospital from October 2011 to October 2012 and 70 normal controls who had contemporaneously visited Jinling Hospital for routine examination. The ACS and SCAD patients were diagnosed according to the European Society of Cardiology guidelines. Serum lipid/lipoprotein profiles, myonecrosis biomarkers and Gensini scores were also analyzed. The area under curve (AUC) and 95% confidence interval (CI) were calculated using ROC analyses. The odds ratio (OR) and 95% CI were calculated using the multivariate logistic regression analyses. Results Compared with the controls [ΔCt: 1.00±0.05], serum miR-133a levels were significantly increased in both ACS [ΔCt: 2.34±0.24] (t=6.059, P<0.001) and SCAD [ΔCt: 1.45±0.13] (t=3.265, P=0.001) patients. The miR-133a levels in ACS patients were significantly higher than in SCAD patients (t=3.133, P=0.002). Serum miR-133a were positively correlated with levels of creatine kinase MB (CK-MB) (r=0.402, P<0.001), cardiac troponin I (cTNI) (r=0.410, P=0.001) and Gensini scores (r=0.438, P<0.001). ROC curve analyses showed that the AUC of miR-133a for differentiating coronary artery disease (CAD) and controls was 0.717 (95% CI: 0.645–0.788, P<0.001) and the AUC for differentiating ACS and SCAD was 0.667 (95% CI: 0.573–0.761, P=0.001). Logistic regression analyses revealed that high miR-133a levels were closely associated with the presence of ACS (OR=6.00, 95% CI: 1.93–18.67, P=0.002) and SCAD (OR=2.81, 95% CI: 1.03–7.68, P=0.044), and also had statistical significance for differentiating ACS and SCAD (OR=2.13, 95% CI: 1.20–3.78, P=0.010), after adjustment for the age, gender and serum lipid/lipoprotein levels. Conclusions Serum miR-133a levels were significantly elevated in CAD patients, and ACS patients exhibited the more significant increase. Serum miR-133a may be function as the potential biomarker for the disease assessment and judgement.(Chin J Lab Med, 2015, 38: 686-690) Key words: Coronary artery disease; Acute coronary syndrome; microRNAs; Biological markers