The potential impact of microRNA-related functional polymorphisms in the pathogenesis of coronary heart disease

MicroRNAs (miRNA) are important post-transcriptional gene regulators. Various populations have experienced a marked rise in the risk of coronary heart disease (CHD) due to multiple miRNA variations. The current case-control study (150 cases and 150 healthy controls) was designed to determine the potential role of five miRNA functional variants (rs2292832, rs3746444, rs11614913, rs1044165, and rs767649) as risk factors for CHD in the Pakistani population using TaqMan Real-time PCR Assay. It was observed that the single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) rs3746444 was significantly associated with the risk of CHD using the co-dominant model [{chi}2 =79.51; P = 0.0001], dominant model (GG vs AA+AG) [OR = 9.333 (5.180-16.82); P = 0.0001], heterozygous model (AG vs AA+GG) [OR = 0.1241 (0.065-0.234); P = 0.0001] and additive model [A vs G; OR = 0.3440 (0.2468-0.4795); P = 0.0001] respectively. Furthermore, rs11614913 was also linked with CHD when analyzed using a co-dominant model [{chi}2 =16.24; P = 0.0003], dominant model (CC vs CT+TT) [OR = 1.918 (1.210-3.042); P = 0.0075], recessive model (TT vs CT+CC) [OR = 0.2754 (0.1369-0.5540); P = 0.0002], and additive model [OR = 2.033 (1.445-2.861); P = 0.0001]. It was also found that rs767649 is connected to CHD using a co-dominant model [{chi}2 =114.9; P = 0.0001], dominant model (AA vs AT+TT) [OR = 7.851 (3.554-17.34); P = 0.0001], recessive model (TT vs AT+AA) [OR = 0.04956 (0.026-0.092); P = 0.0001], heterozygous model (AT vs AA+TT) [OR = 4.495 (2.737-7.382); P = 0.0001], and inheritance additive model [A vs T; OR=7.154 (4.902-10.44); P = 0.0001] respectively. The SNP rs1044165 revealed a strong correlation with CHD using the heterozygous inheritance model (AG vs GG+AA) [OR = 0.3442 (0.1308-0.9055); P = 0.0276]. No statistically significant association (P {square} 0.05) of rs2292832 SNP with CHD was found using all five inheritance models.