title: Long Noncoding RNA MHRT Protects Cardiomyocytes against H2O2-Induced Apoptosis.
abstract: Acute myocardial infarction (AMI) remains a leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. The exploration of new biomarkers with high sensitivity and specificity for early diagnosis of AMI therefore becomes one of the primary task. In the current study, we aim to detect whether there is any heart specific long noncoding RNA (lncRNA) releasing into the circulation during AMI, and explore its function in the neonatal rat cardiac myocytes injury induced by H2O2. Our results revealed that the cardiac-specific lncRNA MHRT (Myosin Heavy Chain Associated RNA Transcripts) was significantly elevated in the blood from AMI patients compared with the healthy control ((*) p<0.05). Using an in vitro neonatal rat cardiac myocytes injury model, we demonstrated that lncRNA MHRT was upregulated in the cardiac myocytes after treatment with hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) via real-time RT-PCR (qRT-PCR). Furthermore, we knockdowned the MHRT gene by siRNA to confirm its roles in the H2O2-induced cardiac cell apoptosis, and found that knockdown of MHRT led to significant more apoptotic cells than the non-target control ((**) p<0.01), indicating that the lncRNA MHRT is a protective factor for cardiomyocyte and the plasma concentration of MHRT may serve as a biomarker for myocardial infarction diagnosis in humans AMI.
authors.affiliation: Departments of Emergency, Maternity and Child Care Hospital, Weihai City, Shandong Province 564200, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Jianying
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Medical Services, Maternity and Child Care Hospital, Weihai City, Shandong Province 564200, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Caihua
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.affiliation: Cardiology, Maternity and Child Care Hospital, Weihai City, Shandong Province 564200, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Meijuan
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Meng
authors.affiliation: Departments of Emergency, Maternity and Child Care Hospital, Weihai City, Shandong Province 564200, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Hongxia
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Tang
keywords: Acute myocardial infarction; Apoptosis; Long noncoding RNAs; MHRT