Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts:   Target Concepts:
Query: UMLS:C0018799 (heart disease)
 34,133 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Mutations in cardiac transcription factor genes, such as GATA-4, NKX2-5 and TBX5 genes, have been associated to the patients with familial and isolated congenital heart disease (CHD). Little work has been done on the epigenetic causes for CHD. Sirtuis are highly conserved NAD-dependent class III deacetylases. In mammals, there are seven members of surtuin family, SIRT1-SIRT7. SIRT1, the closest to yeast Sir2, has deacetylase activity and ADP-ribosyltransferase activity. SIRT1 has been involved in many cellular processes and implicated in human diseases, such as obesity, type 2 diabetes, cancer and neurodegenerative diseases. We hypothesized that altered levels of SIRT1 gene expression, rather than mutations in SIRT1 gene, may contribute to the human diseases. In this study, we genetically analyze the SIRT1 gene promoter in patients with ventricular septal defects (VSD) (n=333) and ethic-matched healthy controls (n=348). In all, six single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and twelve heterozygous sequence variants were identified. Four novel heterozygous variants, g.69643693A>G, g.69643963A>T, g.69643971G>A and g.69644366Ins, were found in six VSD patients, but in none of controls. Six SNPs and variants, g.69643707A>C (rs35706870), g.69643874C>A, g.69644209C>G, g.69644213G>A, g.69644268T>A and g.69644441G>A, were only identified in controls. The other SNPs and variants were found in both groups with similar frequencies. Therefore, the variants within the SIRT1 gene promoter identified in VSD patients may alter the transcriptional activities of SIRT1 gene promoter. Changed SIRT1 protein levels may contribute to the VSD etiology by affecting the activities of its substrates.
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PMID:Genetic analysis of the SIRT1 gene promoter in ventricular septal defects. 2288 81

Increased apoptosis and premature cellular ageing of the diabetic heart underpin the development of diabetic heart disease. The molecular mechanisms underlying these pathologies are still unclear. Here we determined the role of pro-senescence microRNA (miR)-34a in accelerating the ageing of the diabetic heart. RT-PCR analysis showed a significant increase in the level of circulating miR-34a from early stages in asymptomatic type-2 diabetic individuals compared to non-diabetic controls. We also observed significant upregulation of miR-34a in the type-2 human diabetic heart suggesting circulating miR-34a may be cardiac in origin. Moreover, western blot analysis identified marked downregulation of the pro-survival protein sirtuin 1 (SIRT1), a direct target of miR-34a. Analysis of cultured human adult cardiomyocytes exposed to high glucose and cardiac progenitor cells (CPCs) isolated from the diabetic heart confirmed significant upregulation of miR-34a and downregulation of SIRT1, associated with a marked increase in pro-apoptotic caspase-3/7 activity. Although therapeutic inhibition of miR-34a activity restored SIRT1 expression in both cardiomyocytes and CPCs, p53 expression was further upregulated in cardiomyocytes but conversely downregulated in CPCs. In spite of increased p53, miR-34a inhibition significantly reduced high glucose induced apoptotic cell death in cardiomyocytes. However, this effect was not observed in CPCs, which in fact showed reduced proliferation following miR-34a inhibition. Taken together, our results demonstrate upregulation of miR-34a in the diabetic heart and in the circulation from an early stage of the disease. However, inhibition of miR-34a activity has differential effects depending on the cell type, thereby warranting the need to eliminate off-target effects when introducing miR-based therapy.
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PMID:Diabetes induces the activation of pro-ageing miR-34a in the heart, but has differential effects on cardiomyocytes and cardiac progenitor cells. 2930 57

Background: A deleterious, late-onset side effect of thoracic radiotherapy is the development of radiation-induced heart disease (RIHD). It covers a spectrum of cardiac pathology including also heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) characterized by left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) and diastolic dysfunction. MicroRNA-212 (miR-212) is a crucial regulator of pathologic LVH via FOXO3-mediated pathways in pressure-overload-induced heart failure. We aimed to investigate whether miR-212 and its selected hypertrophy-associated targets play a role in the development of RIHD. Methods: RIHD was induced by selective heart irradiation (50 Gy) in a clinically relevant rat model. One, three, and nineteen weeks after selective heart irradiation, transthoracic echocardiography was performed to monitor cardiac morphology and function. Cardiomyocyte hypertrophy and fibrosis were assessed by histology at week 19. qRT-PCR was performed to measure the gene expression changes of miR-212 and forkhead box O3 (FOXO3) in all follow-up time points. The cardiac transcript level of other selected hypertrophy-associated targets of miR-212 including extracellular signal-regulated kinase 2 (ERK2), myocyte enhancer factor 2a (MEF2a), AMP-activated protein kinase, (AMPK), heat shock protein 40 (HSP40), sirtuin 1, (SIRT1), calcineurin A-alpha and phosphatase and tensin homolog (PTEN) were also measured at week 19. Cardiac expression of FOXO3 and phospho-FOXO3 were investigated at the protein level by Western blot at week 19. Results: In RIHD, diastolic dysfunction was present at every time point. Septal hypertrophy developed at week 3 and a marked LVH with interstitial fibrosis developed at week 19 in the irradiated hearts. In RIHD, cardiac miR-212 was overexpressed at week 3 and 19, and FOXO3 was repressed at the mRNA level only at week 19. In contrast, the total FOXO3 protein level failed to decrease in response to heart irradiation at week 19. Other selected hypertrophy-associated target genes failed to change at the mRNA level in RIHD at week 19. Conclusions: LVH in RIHD was associated with cardiac overexpression of miR-212. However, miR-212 seems to play a role in the development of LVH via FOXO3-independent mechanisms in RIHD. As a central regulator of pathologic remodeling, miR-212 might become a novel target for RIHD-induced LVH and heart failure.
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PMID:Selective Heart Irradiation Induces Cardiac Overexpression of the Pro-hypertrophic miR-212. 3138 Feb 69