THIS IS WHERE DISCOVERIES ARE BORN!

The researchers from the Medical University of Bialystok (Marta Paslawska-Zyskowska, Piotr Majewski, Anetta Sulewska, Paweł Muszynski, Milosz Nesterowicz, Filip Bossowski, Beata Sawicka, Justyna Dunaj-Malyszko, Anna Moniuszko-Malinowska, Jacek Niklinski, Artur Tadeusz Bossowski), along with co-authors from Bialystok University of Technology published the article „Assessment of miR-1-3p, miR-let-7b-5p, miR-21-5p, and miR-26b-5p in Children with Cardiovascular Diseases” in Cells (https://doi.org/10.3390/cells15080674, IF = 5.2).

In the pediatric population, cardiovascular disease continues to be a significant cause of morbidity and premature mortality, and it presents a significant diagnostic and clinical challenge. Despite the development of modern imaging methods and electrophysiological diagnostics, there is still a lack of readily available, minimally invasive biomarkers that enable early detection of myocardial injury and differentiation between various cardiac conditions in children.

This study evaluated the expression of selected microRNAs in children aged 10–18 years diagnosed with cardiomyopathies, myocarditis, and cardiac arrhythmias. The control group consisted of healthy children matched for age and sex. Analysis was performed using peripheral blood plasma samples and the comparative cycle threshold (ΔCt) method. The results demonstrated a significant reduction in miR-26b-5p expression in patients with heart disease compared with the control group. Additionally, lower expression levels of            miR-21-5p and miR-26b-5p were observed in children with ventricular arrhythmias, as well as reduced miR-26b-5p expression in patients with cardiac arrhythmias regardless of their type. However, no significant differences in the expression of the analyzed microRNAs were found in patients with myocarditis or hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.

The findings suggest that miR-26b-5p may be as a promising biomarker for cardiovascular diseases and cardiac arrhythmias in children, while miR-21-5p and miR-26b-5p may have potential significance in the diagnosis of ventricular arrhythmias. However, further studies involving larger patient groups are needed to confirm these observations.

The research was supported by the Medical University of Bialystok (B.SUB.26.505, B.SUB.26.416/02.S, B.SUB.25.281 and B.SUB.24.114.).