Circulating miR-122-5p as a potential novel biomarker for diagnosis of acute myocardial infarction.

BACKGROUND: MicroRNAs (miRNAs) play key roles in cardiac development, and the expression of miRNAs is altered in the diseased heart. The aim of this study was to explore the value of circulating microRNA-122-5p (miR-122-5p) as a potential biomarker for acute myocardial infarction (AMI). METHODS: Plasma samples from 50 patients with AMI and 39 healthy adults (non-AMI controls) were collected. The abundance of circulating miR-122-5p was measured using quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR). The cTnI concentrations of these samples were analyzed by ELISA. RESULTS: Our findings revealed that circulating miR-122-5p expression were increased in AMI patients at 4 h, 8 h, 12 h, and 24 h by contrast to those non-AMI controls and displayed similar trends to that of cTnI concentrations in AMI patients. Further study showed that there is a high correlation between circulating miR-122-5p and cTnI concentrations. At last, the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was performed and showed that circulating miR-122-5p had considerable diagnostic accuracy for AMI with an area under curve (AUC) of 0.855. CONCLUSIONS: Our results implied that circulating miR-122-5p could be a potential biomarker for AMI.

Synthesis of Tat tagged and folate modified N-succinyl-chitosan self-assembly nanoparticles as a novel gene vector.

The purpose of this research was to prepare a novel type of Tat tagged and folate modified N-succinyl-chitosan (Tat-Suc-FA) self-assembly nanoparticles, to provide a new vector for tumor gene therapy. In this study, Tat-Suc-FA polymers was synthesized and characterized using (1)H NMR and FT-IR. The copolymer had a mean diameter of 65 ± 22.6 nm, a zeta potential of 40 ± 0.2 mV. The cytotoxicity assay showed that Tat-Suc-FA polymers were less toxic than chitosan in the tested concentration range (from 2 to 500 µg/ml). Tat-Suc-FA/DNA complexes at various weight ratios were formulated and characterized. Particle sizes of Tat-Suc-FA/DNA complexes were between 54 and 106 nm as determined by dynamic light scattering. Accordingly, Transmission electron microscope photo of Tat-Suc-FA/DNA complexes exhibited a spherical and compact morphology. Zeta potentials of these complexes changed as the weight ratio varied (from 3 to 44 mV). Agarose gel electrophoresis assay showed that Tat-Suc-FA could efficiently condense the DNA, when the weight ratio was above 1.5/1. Together, these results suggest that the low toxic Tat-Suc-FA cationic polymers could be considered for use as a novel type of gene delivery vectors.