Circulating miR-26a-1, miR-146a and miR-199a-1 are potential candidate biomarkers for acute myocardial infarction

BACKGROUND: Acute myocardial infarction (AMI) was considered to be one of the major causes of morbidity and mortality worldwide. In order to manage the acute myocardial infarction outbreaks, accurate biomarkers for risk prediction are needed. Circulating microRNAs (miRNAs) may act as diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers for cardiovascular events. METHODS: This study aimed to determine the possibility of circulating miRNAs used as biomarkers for AMI and their dynamic expression levels before and after percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) in patients. Circulating miR-26a-1, miR-27a, miR-30d, miR-146a, miR-199a-1 and miR-423 were selected and validated in 31 AMI patients and 27 matched controls by quantitative real-time PCR (qPCR). RESULTS: The expression levels of plasma miR-26a-1, miR-146a and miR-199a-1 were significantly increased in AMI patients. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis indicated that miR-26a-1, miR-146a and miR-199a-1 showed considerable diagnostic efficiency for predicting AMI. Furthermore, we demonstrated that the combination of miR-26a-1, miR-146a and miR-199a-1 facilitated AMI diagnosis. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that circulating miR-26a-1, miR-146a and miR-199a-1 have the potential to be used as biomarkers for AMI diagnosis. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1186/s10020-019-0086-1) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.