Association between Long Noncoding RNA ANRIL Expression Variants and Susceptibility to Coronary Artery Disease

Animal cells possess thousands of long non-coding (lnc) RNAs, such as antisense noncoding RNA in the INK4 locus ( ), which have regulatory roles in the cells' molecular mechanisms, including X-chromosome inactivation, and developmental processes. These lnc RNAs are known to influence the extensive spectrum of age-related disorders. Accordingly, there is evidence for the role of these lnc RNAs in cardiovascular diseases, particularly coronary artery diseases (CAD). The aim of this study was to assess whether the expression of the lnc RNA was associated with a susceptibility to CAD by evaluating the expression level of the two transcripts of . Peripheral blood was taken from fifty patients affected by CAD and relative expression of was determined by Real-Time PCR assay. The obtained data indicated that the transcript expression level significantly decreased in CAD patients in comparison with the healthy individuals (P= 0.001). Furthermore, there was no significant association between the transcript expression, and CAD risk in Iranian patients (P=0.751). Our results suggest that the expression level of the transcript of may be implicated in CAD development, creating a predictive biomarker for CAD patients in future.