Review
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2015. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Cardiol. Dec 26, 2015; 7(12): 843-860
Published online Dec 26, 2015. doi: 10.4330/wjc.v7.i12.843
Diagnostic and prognostic value of circulating microRNAs in heart failure with preserved and reduced ejection fraction
Christian Schulte, Dirk Westermann, Stefan Blankenberg, Tanja Zeller
Christian Schulte, Dirk Westermann, Stefan Blankenberg, Tanja Zeller, Department of General and Interventional Cardiology, University Heart Center Hamburg Eppendorf, 20246 Hamburg, Germany
Dirk Westermann, Stefan Blankenberg, Tanja Zeller, German Center for Cardiovascular Research (DZHK), Partner site Hamburg/Luebeck/Kiel, 20246 Hamburg, Germany
Author contributions: Schulte C, Westermann D, Blankenberg S, Zeller T designed the topic and structure of the review; Schulte C wrote the manuscript; Schulte C, Zeller T performed literature research, created figures and tables.
Supported by The European Union, BiomarCaRE, No. HEALTH-2011-278913.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All authors report no conflict of interest.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Tanja Zeller, PhD, Professor for Genomics and Systems Biology, Department of General and Interventional Cardiology, University Heart Center Hamburg Eppendorf, Building N27, Martinistr 52, 20246 Hamburg, Germany. t.zeller@uke.de
Telephone: +49-40-741056575 Fax: +49-40-740040194
Received: May 28, 2015
Peer-review started: May 31, 2015
First decision: August 16, 2015
Revised: September 21, 2015
Accepted: October 12, 2015
Article in press: October 13, 2015
Published online: December 26, 2015
Processing time: 209 Days and 22.8 Hours
Abstract

microRNAs (miRNAs) are powerful regulators of posttranscriptional gene expression and play an important role in pathophysiological processes. Circulating miRNAs can be quantified in body liquids and are promising biomarkers in numerous diseases. In cardiovascular disease miRNAs have been proven to be reliable diagnostic biomarkers for different disease entities. In cardiac fibrosis (CF) and heart failure (HF) dysregulated circulating miRNAs have been identified, indicating their promising applicability as diagnostic biomarkers. Some miRNAs were successfully tested in risk stratification of HF implementing their potential use as prognostic biomarkers. In this respect miRNAs might soon be implemented in diagnostic clinical routine. In the young field of miRNA based research advances have been made in identifying miRNAs as potential targets for the treatment of experimental CF and HF. Promising study results suggest their potential future application as therapeutic agents in treatment of cardiovascular disease. This article summarizes the current state of the various aspects of miRNA research in the field of CF and HF with reduced ejection fraction as well as preserved ejection fraction. The review provides an overview of the application of circulating miRNAs as biomarkers in CF and HF and current approaches to therapeutically utilize miRNAs in this field of cardiovascular disease.

Keywords: MicroRNA; Heart failure; Cardiac fibrosis; Biomarker; Diagnostic; Prognostic; Heart failure with reduced ejection fraction; Heart failure with preserved ejection fraction

Core tip: Recent study results suggest microRNAs (miRNAs) as promising biomarkers in the diagnosis of heart failure (HF) with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF) and with preserve ejection fraction (HFpEF). The therapeutic application of antagomirs and mirmimics in heart failure is still in its infancy but promising experimental results are reported. This review provides an overview of miRNAs as diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers in HF and gives details on the utilization of miRNAs in the differentiated diagnosis of HFpEF and HFrEF. The manuscript evaluates the therapeutic applicability of miRNAs in HF and thus provides valuable information for researchers dealing with miRNAs in HF.