Intracardiac/extracardiac circulating microRNA profiling in atrial fibrillation -cardiac specific biomarkers for atrial remodeling-

2018 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 16K09462
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Cardiovascular medicine
• Research Institution: Fujita Health University
• Principal Investigator: Harada Masahide 藤田医科大学, 医学部, 准教授 (70514800)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): 奥崎 大介 大阪大学, 微生物病研究所, 助教 (00346131) ; 尾崎 行男 藤田医科大学, 医学部, 教授 (50298569) ; 渡邉 英一 藤田医科大学, 医学部, 教授 (80343656)
• Research Collaborator: Koshikawa Masayuki
• Project Period (FY): 2016-04-01 – 2019-03-31
• Keywords: マイクロRNA / 心房細動 / 心房リモデリング

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The blood samples were collected from the coronary sinus (CS, reflecting cardiac phenomena more specifically) and the central venous (CV) in patients with and without atrial fibrillation (AF); the plasma expression of microRNAs (miRNAs) was measured using quantitative PCR and next generation sequencer (NGS). We identified miRNAs that showed significant differences in the plasma expression between patients with and without AF in the CS samples. Among them, we focused on miRNAs that also showed similar expression differences in the CV samples; these were candidates for the clinical biomarkers. We created the novel miRNA-based method to assess AF pathophysiology and prospectively evaluate the efficacy in terms of whether it can predict therapeutic outcomes, disease progression, and adverse event risk.

Free Research Field

循環器分野

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

血中miRNAによる新たなAFの評価法が確立されれば、病態に基づいた個別化医療が実現できる可能性がある。そして、AFの治療効果、病態の進行、合併症の発症などが正確に予測できるようになれば、治療成績や生命予後を劇的に改善させる可能性がある。また、臨床指標を用いた病態評価法は、基礎研究でのmiRNAの新知見を臨床的に確認するツールとなり、学術的な意義も極めて大きい。AFは実臨床で最も頻度の高い不整脈でり、本研究によってAFの臨床マネージメントが革新的に進歩すれば、社会的、医療経済的な貢献度は計り知れない。