Plasma miR-302 b is a promising biomarker for diagnosis of acute myocardial infarction

Alteration in expression of circulating microRNAs (miRNAs) has been shown to be involved in the initiation and development of cardiovascular diseases. The purpose of current study aimed to determine whether plasma miR-302b can be used as novel indicators for detection of acute myocardial infarction (AMI). Plasma samples from 76 patients with AMI and 30 healthy adults were collected. Quantitative real-time PCR and ELISA assays were used to evaluate the expression level of plasma miR-302b and conventional biomarkers, respectively. Receiver-operator characteristic curve (ROC) analysis was conducted to evaluate the diagnostic ability of plasma miR-302b for AMI. The expression level of plasma miR-302b was significantly upregulated in AMI patients (P<0.01). In addition, plasma miR-302b expression level was positively correlated with cardiac troponin I (cTnI, r=0.9189, P<0.0001), creatine kinase (CK, r=0.7902, P<0.0001) as well as CK-MB (r=0.7858, P<0.0001). ROC analysis indicated that plasma miR-302b had a high accuracy in diagnosing AMI (AUC=0.952). Taken together, plasma miR-302b was significantly upregulated in AMI, indicating that it may represent a novel and promising biomarker for early diagnosis of AMI.