Comparison of the Overexpression of HOTAIR lncRNAs and the Downregulation of HOXD10 Between Familial and Sporadic Coronary Artery Diseases

Coronary artery disease (CAD) is a multifactorial disorder and one of the major causes of death all over the world. Both genetics and the environment are responsible for CAD occurrence. Recent studies have shown the considerable role of epigenetics in various diseases. HOTAIR is a circulating long noncoding RNA (lncRNA) in the blood with an epigenetic regulation role in transcriptional pathways in different diseases. Recent investigations have shown that HOTAIR could be a potential biomarker for diagnosis and therapeutic targets in CAD.

In the present study, we sought to evaluate the expression of HOTAIR lncRNAs in the blood samples of 30 patients with a family history of CAD and 30 sporadic CAD samples with coronary angiography-confirmed CAD. The expression level was examined using the semiquantitative reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction technique. For the epigenetic validation of HOTAIR function, the expression level of the HOXD10 gene as the main target of HOTAIR lncRNAs in expression modulation was evaluated.

The expression level of HOTAIR was higher in patients with familial CAD than in sporadic CAD patients, whereas the expression level of HOXD10 in the familial CAD group was lower than that in the sporadic group. Notably, the average age of the familial CAD group was lower than that of the sporadic group.

The high expression level of HOTAIR in patients with a family history of CAD in comparison with sporadic CAD patients shows the role of genetics and epigenetics in the expression level of HOTAIR. High expression levels of HOTAIR increase susceptibility to CAD and have a positive correlation with age at CAD onset. (Iranian Heart Journal 2021; 22(4): 127-134)