Dysregulation of autophagy-related lncRNAs in peripheral blood of coronary artery disease patients

Abstract

Coronary artery disease (CAD) as a major cause of death has been associated with dysregulation of several processes among them is autophagy. In the current study, we assessed expression of autophagy related gene 5 (ATG5) and three ATG5-associated long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs Chast, HULC and DICER1-AS1) in the peripheral blood of patients with premature CAD and healthy subjects. Expression levels of ATG5, Chast, HULC and DICER1-AS1 were significantly lower in peripheral blood of CAD cases compared with healthy subjects. Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curve analysis showed that HULC and DICER1-AS1 can properly differentiate CAD patients from healthy subjects (area under curve (AUC) values of 0.90 and 0.87, respectively). Expression levels of ATG5 and Chast were inversely correlated with FBS levels (r = −0.41, P < 0.0001 and r = −0.38, P < 0.0001 respectively) but no other biochemical factors. Expression of DICER1-AS1 was inversely correlated with FBS (r = −0.54, P < 0.0001), TG (r = −0.29, P < 0.0001) and TG/HDL ratio (r = −0.27, P < 0.0001). Expression of HULC was inversely correlated with age (r = −0.24, P < 0.0001), FBS (r = −0.62, P < 0.0001) and TG (r = −0.31, P < 0.0001). There were significant pairwise correlations between expression levels of all genes. The most robust correlations were detected ATG5 and Chast (r = 0.81, P < 0.0001) and between DICER1-AS1 and HULC (r = 0.75, P < 0.0001). The current study further verified associations between dysregulation of autophagy and CAD. Moreover, our results indicate appropriateness of two autophagy-related lncRNAs for differentiation of CAD status.