Identification of monocyte-associated genes as predictive biomarkers of heart failure after acute myocardial infarction

BACKGROUND: Acute myocardial infarction (AMI) is a major contributor of heart failure (HF). Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs), mainly monocytes, are the essential initiators of AMI-induced HF. The powerful biomarkers for early identification of AMI patients at risk of HF remain elusive. We aimed to identify monocyte-related critical genes as predictive biomarkers for post-AMI HF. METHODS: We performed weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA) on transcriptomics of PBMCs from AMI patients who developed HF or did not. Functional enrichment analysis of genes in significant modules was performed via Metascape. Then we obtained the single-cell RNA-sequencing data of recruited monocytes/macrophages from AMI and control mice using the Scanpy and screened 381 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between the two groups. We validated the expression changes of the 25 genes in cardiac macrophages from AMI mice based on bulk RNA-sequencing data and PBMCs data mentioned above. RESULTS: In our study, the results of WGCNA showed that two modules containing 827 hub genes were most significantly associated with post-AMI HF, which mainly participated in cell migration, inflammation, immunity, and apoptosis. There were 25 common genes between DEGs and hub genes, showing close relationship with inflammation and collagen metabolism. CUX1, CTSD and ADD3 exhibited consistent changes in three independent studies. Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis showed that each of the three genes had excellent performance in recognizing post-AMI HF patients. CONCLUSION: Our findings provided a set of three monocyte-related biomarkers for the early prediction of HF development after AMI as well as potential therapeutic targets of post-AMI HF.