Evaluation of miR-146a (rs2910164) polymorphism in coronary artery disease: Case-control and silico analysis

As the most common cause of mortality, cardiovascular disease is a serious problem in the health system worldwide. The function of a small non-coding RNA, miR-146a, in inflammation and myocardial hypertrophy has been determined previously. In this experiment, we aim to assess the role of miR-146a polymorphism in cardiovascular disease. In this case-control study, 297 cardiovascular disease (CAD) patients and 306 healthy controls were enrolled. The polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and the restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) were applied to determine the genotype of the miR-146a (rs2910164) SNP. The secondary structure of miR-146a and potential protein interactions of two alternative variants, C and G, were determined with in silico and computational analysis. Statistically, P < 0.05 was considered significant. The frequency of genotypes including CC, CG, and GG related to miR-146a (rs2910164) polymorphism showed no significant difference between CAD patients and controls (P = 0.928). The results of in silico and computational analysis reported that G and C-variants may support different RNA folding arrangements and promote different protein binding sites. However, miR-146a gene polymorphism (rs2910164) has no significant association with CAD in the study population.