Background: Coronary artery disease (CAD) is among prominent causes of death throughout the world. Inflammatory processes participate in the pathogenesis of this disorder.
Methods: In the current case-control study, we compared expression levels of three inflammation-associated genes namely Antisense noncoding RNA in the INK4 locus (ANRIL), NKILA and IL-1B between CAD patients and matched healthy subjects.
Results: ANRIL, IL-1B and NKILA were significantly down-regulated in CAD patients compared with controls (p values of <.0001, .023 and <.0001, respectively). When evaluating study participants based on their gender, the differences in expression levels of ANRIL and NKILA were significant in both male and female patients compared with the matched controls. However, IL-1B was only down-regulated in female patients compared with female controls.
Conclusion: Taken together, our study revealed dysregulation of inflammation-associated genes in the peripheral blood of CAD patients and supported the previously suggested role of inflammation in the pathogenesis of CAD.
Keywords: ANRIL; Coronary artery disease; IL-1B; NF-κB interacting long noncoding RNA; NKILA; antisense noncoding RNA in the INK4 locus; lncRNA.