Mitochondrial genome sequencing in atherosclerosis: what's next?

Cardiovascular diseases are currently a basic cause of mortality in highly developed countries. The major reason for genesis and development of cardiovascular diseases is atherosclerosis. At the present time high technology methods of molecular genetic diagnostics can significantly simplify early presymptomatic recognition of patients with atherosclerosis, to detect risk groups and to perform a family analysis of this pathology. A Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS) technology can be characterized by high productivity and cheapness of full genome analysis of each DNA sample. We suppose that in the nearest future NGS methods will be widely used for scientific and diagnostic purposes, including personalized medicine. In the present review article literature data on using NGS technology were described in studying mitochondrial genome mutations associated with atherosclerosis and its risk factors, such as mitochondrial diabetes, mitochondrial cardiomyopathy, diabetic nephropathy and left ventricular hypertrophy. With the use of the NGS technology it proved to be possible to detect a range of homoplasmic and heteroplasmic mutations and mitochondrial genome haplogroups which are associated with these pathologies. Meanwhile some mutations and haplogroups were detected both in atherosclerosis and in its risk factors. It conveys the suggestion that there are common pathogenetic mechanisms causing these pathologies. What comes next? New paradigm of crosstalk between non-pharmaceutical (including molecular genetic) and true pharmaceutical approaches may be developed to fill the niche of effective and pathogenically targeted pretreatment and treatment of preclinical and subclinical atherosclerosis to avoid the development of chronic life-threatening disease.