MicroRNA-18a Expression in Female Coronary Heart Disease and Regulatory Mechanism on Endothelial Cell by Targeting Estrogen Receptor.

Coronary heart disease (CHD) is a kind of cardiovascular disease, which has been causing mortality around the world for decades. Because symptoms of CHD are different in female and male patients and these symptoms occur much later in female patients, CHD is very likely to be underdiagnosed in women. Thus, it is imperative to explore novel diagnostic method for CHD especially for women. Recently, microRNA-targeted therapy has attracted much attention as a novel therapeutic method. MicroRNAs have been proven as possible markers and targeted agents for diverse diseases. In this article, this study presented an overexpressed miR-18a signature in female CHD patients' peripheral blood. And a strong association of miR-18a with estrogen receptor (ER) expression level was observed. The effects of miR-18a on human umbilical vein endothelial cell proliferation and apoptosis were monitored. The modulatory ability and possible mechanism of miR-18a on ER expression and PI3K/Akt/mTOR pathway was explored by multiple methods. Our study suggested that miR-18a could regulate CHD development through targeting ER. This could provide important information for better understanding of CHD pathology and may offer a promising molecularly targeted method for CHD therapy.