Construction of a microRNA-associated feed-forward loop network that identifies regulators of cardiac hypertrophy and acute myocardial infarction

Feed-forward loops (FFLs) are three-gene modules that exert significant effects on a series of biological processes and carcinogenesis development. MicroRNA-associated FFLs (miR-FFLs) represent a new era in disease research. However, analysis of the miR-FFL network motifs has yet to be systematically performed, and their potential role in cardiac hypertrophy and acute myocardial infarction (AMI) requires investigation. The present study used a computational method to establish a comprehensive miR-FFL network for cardiac hypertrophy and AMI, by integrating high-throughput data from different sources and performing multi-aspect analysis of the network features. Several heart disease-associated miR-FFL motifs were identified that were specific or common to the two diseases investigated. Functional analysis further revealed that miR-FFL motifs provided specific drug targets for the clinical treatment of cardiac hypertrophy and AMI. Associations between specific drugs associated with heart disease and dysregulated FFLs were also identified. The present study highlighted the components of FFL motifs in cardiac hypertrophy and AMI, and revealed their possibility as heart disease biomarkers and novel treatment targets.