Correlation between serum exosome derived miR-208a and acute coronary syndrome

To explore the correlation of miRNAs with clinical characteristics of ACS.

50 ACS patients and 50 healthy controls were randomly selected. On the basis of miRNA expression levels, ACS patients were classified as low miRNA expression group (fold change: <3) and high miRNA expression group (≥3).

miR-208a expression increased markedly in the serum exosomes of ACS patients, and miR-208a expression in the serum of ACS patients was also significantly higher than that in healthy controls. However, the sensitivity of serum miR-208a was inferior to that of exosome miR-208a. Analysis of clinical characteristics showed the mean age of 500 ACS patients was 62.35±9.70 years, and there were 300 patients in low miR-208a expression group and 200 patients in high miR-208a expression group. When compared with low miR-208a expression group, patients with high miR-208a expression were older, and had higher Killip class, higher CK-MB peak, higher cTnT peak and elevated LDL (P<0.05). Within 1-year follow up, 32 patients died including 10 in low miR-208a expression group with the mortality of 3.3% and 22 in high miR-208a expression group with the mortality of 11.0%. Kaplan-Meier survival analysis revealed that the 1-year survival rate reduced significantly in patients with high miR-208a expression.

miRNA-208a expression is significantly up-regulated in the serum exosomes of ACS patients and is crucial for the diagnosis of ACS.