Increased plasma miR-16 is associated with poor prognosis for acute myocardial infarction

Objective: MicroRNAs (miRNAs) play a crucial role in regulating many physiological and pathological processes. Although increasing number of biomarkers have been identified for early detection and predicating the prognosis of acute myocardial infarction (AMI), they are still not ideal enough. Method: The aim of current study was to evaluate the expression pattern of plasma miR-16 in patients with AMI using real-time PCR and to explore its potential clinical value in AMI progression. Results: Our results showed that plasma miR-16 was significantly elevated in AMI patients compared to the healthy volunteers. In addition, plasma miR-16 level distinguished AMI patients from controls with an area under a receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve (AUC) value of 0.813. Plasma miR-16 level was also found to associated with many clinical variables including left ventricular ejection fraction, GRACE score and Killip class. Moreover, patients in the high plasma miR-16 group had more unfavorable three-year overall survival and major adverse cardiac events (MACE) than those in the low plasma miR-16 group. High plasma miR-16 was demonstrated to be an independent risk factor for AMI. Conclusion: Collectively, the peripheral plasma miR-16 level remarkably increases following cardiac infarction and might serve as a novel biomarker for the diagnosis and prognosis of AMI.