microRNA-3646 serves as a diagnostic marker and mediates the inflammatory response induced by acute coronary syndrome

Figures & data

Table 1. The clinical features of study subjects

	Healthy	ACS	Non-ACS
Age	61.68 ± 2.13	62.26 ± 3.40	62.02 ± 2.52
Sex (M/F)	28/22	39/33	35/28
TC (mmol/L)	3.79 ± 0.72	4.42 ± 0.74***/^###	3.71 ± 0.32
HDL (mmol/L)	1.31 ± 0.57	1.25 ± 0.39	1.35 ± 0.29
LDL (mmol/L)	2.45 ± 0.76	2.90 ± 0.80***/^###	2.48 ± 0.66
GLU (mmol/L)	5.62 ± 0.48	5.95 ± 0.62***/^##	5.68 ± 0.50
TG (mmol/L)	1.70 ± 0.39	1.76 ± 0.55	1.68 ± 0.51
Type (UA/NSTEM/STEMI)	-	29/22/21	-
Gensini score	-	61.59 ± 11.22	-

ACS: acute coronary syndrome; TC: total cholesterol; HDL: high density lipoprotein; LDL: low density lipoprotein; GLU: blood glucose; TG: triglycerides; UA: unstable angina; NSTEM: non-ST elevation ACS; STEMII: ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction.

***P < 0.001 compared with the healthy group; ^##P < 0.01, ^###P < 0.001 compared with the ACS group

Table 2. Association between miR-3646 expression and clinical features of ACS patients

	Total (72)	miR-3646 expression		P value
		Low (34)	High (38)
Age (years)				0.637
≤ 60	36	18	18
> 60	36	16	20
sex				0.782
Male	39	19	20
Female	33	15	18
TC (mmol/L)				0.030
≤ 4.5	39	23	16
> 4.5	33	11	22
HDL (mmol/L)				0.260
≤ 1.25	31	17	14
> 1.25	41	17	24
LDL (mmol/L)				0.008
≤ 3.0	39	24	15
> 3.0	33	10	23
GLU (mmol/L)				0.007
< 6.0	41	25	16
≥ 6.0	31	9	22
TG (mmol/L)				0.803
< 1.7	35	16	19
≥ 1.7	37	18	19
Type				0.103
UA	29	11	18
NSTEM	21	14	7
STEMI	22	9	13
Gensini score				0.021
< 60	30	19	11
≥ 60	42	15	27

ACS: acute coronary syndrome; TC: total cholesterol; HDL: high density lipoprotein; LDL: low density lipoprotein; GLU: blood glucose; TG: triglycerides; UA: unstable angina; NSTEM: non-ST elevation ACS; STEMII: ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction.

Figure 1. The expression of miR-3646 and its diagnostic value in ACS patients. A. miR-3646 was significantly upregulated in the serum of ACS patients compared with that in healthy volunteers and non-ACS patients. ***P < 0.001 relative to healthy volunteers; ^###P < 0.001 relative to non-ACS patients. B. miR-3646 could distinguish ACS patients from healthy volunteers with an AUC of 0.884. C. miR-3646 could distinguish ACS patients from non-ACS patients with the AUC of 0.825

Figure 2. The correlation of miR-3646 with the TC (a), LDL (b), and GLU (c) levels of ACS patients. miR-3646 showed significantly positive correlation with the TC (r = 0.785), LDL (r = 0.746), and GLU (r = 0.717) levels of ACS patients

Figure 3. The expression of miR-3646 in ACS modeling rats was obtained from six rats in each group. miR-3646 was significantly upregulated in ACS modeling rats, which was reversed by the injection of miR-3646 interference plasmid. **P < 0.01, ***P < 0.001 relative to the sham group; ^###P < 0.001 relative to the ACS group

Figure 4. The effect of miR-3646 on the relative levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines was studied in six rats of each group. ACS induced the increasing levels of TNF-α (a), IL-6 (b), and IL-8 (c), which was reversed by the knockdown of miR-3646. *P < 0.05, ***P < 0.001 relative to the sham group; ^##P < 0.01 relative to the ACS group

Table 3. The corresponding features of rats in each group

	Sham	ACS	ACS + anti-miR-3646
TC (mmol/L)	1.25 ± 0.33	1.99 ± 0.11***	1.58 ± 0.13*/^#
TG (mmol/L)	0.57 ± 0.13	0.74 ± 0.11	0.64 ± 0.17
LDL (mmol/L)	1.00 ± 0.20	1.62 ± 0.20***	1.30 ± 0.10*/^#
GLU (mmol/L)	5.17 ± 0.24	7.41 ± 0.91***	6.17 ± 0.50*/^##

ACS: acute coronary syndrome; TC: total cholesterol; LDL: low density lipoprotein; GLU: blood glucose; TG: triglycerides.

*P < 0.05, ***P < 0.001 compared with the sham group; ^#P < 0.05, ^##P < 0.01 compared with the ACS group.

Figure 5. The effect of miR-3646 on the TC (a), TG (b), LDL (c), and GLU (d) of rats (six rats of each group). ACS induced a significant increase in the levels of TC, LDL, and GLU, while no significant changes were observed in the level of TG. *P < 0.05, ***P < 0.001 compared with the sham group; #P < 0.05, ##P < 0.01 compared with the ACS group