Data on association of mitochondrial heteroplasmy and cardiovascular risk factors: Comparison of samples from Russian and Mexican populations.

Despite the fact that the role of mitochondrial genome mutations in a number of human diseases is widely studied, the effect of mitochondrial heteroplasmy in the development of cardiovascular disease has not been adequately investigated. In this study, we compared the heteroplasmy levels of mtDNA from leukocytes for m.3256C>T, m.3336T>C, m.12315G>A, m.5178C>A, m.13513G>A, m.14459G>A, m.14846G>A, m.15059G>A, m.652insG and m.1555A>G mutations in CVD-free subjects and CVD patients in samples derived from Russian and Mexican populations. It was demonstrated that heteroplasmy level of m.5178C>A was associated with CVD in Russian men, and m.14459G>A - in Russian women. Mitochondrial heteroplasmy level of m.13513G>A and m.652insG were associated with CVD in Mexican men, and only m.652insG- in Mexican women. The levels of heteroplasmy for mitochondrial mutations m.3336T>C, m.5178C>A, m.14459G>A, m.14846G>A and m.1555A>G were significantly higher in CVD-free Mexican men, and for m.3256C>T, m.3336T>C, and m.14459G>A - in CVD-free Mexican women.

Mitochondrial Genome Mutations Associated with Myocardial Infarction.

Myocardial infarction is one of the clinical manifestations of coronary heart disease. In some cases, the cause of myocardial infarction may be atherosclerotic plaques which occurred in the human aorta. The association of mtDNA mutations with atherosclerotic lesions in human arteries was previously detected by our research group. In this study, we used samples of white blood cells collected from 225 patients with myocardial infarction and 239 control persons with no health complaints. DNA was isolated from the blood leukocyte samples. Then, PCR fragments of DNA were obtained. They contained the investigated regions of 11 mitochondrial genome mutations (m.5178C>A, m.3336T>C, m.652delG, m.12315G>A, m.14459G>A, m.652insG, m.14846G>A, m.13513G>A, m.1555A>G, m.15059G>A, m.3256C>T). According to the obtained results, three mutations of the human mitochondrial genome correlated with myocardial infarction. A positive correlation was observed for mutation m.5178C>A. At the same time, a highly significant negative correlation with myocardial infarction was observed for mutation m.14846G>A. One single-nucleotide substitution of m.12315G>A had a trend towards negative correlation. These mutations can potentially be useful for creating molecular/cellular models for studying the mechanisms of myocardial infarction and designing novel therapies. Moreover, these mutations can possibly be used for diagnostic purposes.

Mitochondrial genome sequencing in atherosclerosis: what's next?

Cardiovascular diseases are currently a basic cause of mortality in highly developed countries. The major reason for genesis and development of cardiovascular diseases is atherosclerosis. At the present time high technology methods of molecular genetic diagnostics can significantly simplify early presymptomatic recognition of patients with atherosclerosis, to detect risk groups and to perform a family analysis of this pathology. A Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS) technology can be characterized by high productivity and cheapness of full genome analysis of each DNA sample. We suppose that in the nearest future NGS methods will be widely used for scientific and diagnostic purposes, including personalized medicine. In the present review article literature data on using NGS technology were described in studying mitochondrial genome mutations associated with atherosclerosis and its risk factors, such as mitochondrial diabetes, mitochondrial cardiomyopathy, diabetic nephropathy and left ventricular hypertrophy. With the use of the NGS technology it proved to be possible to detect a range of homoplasmic and heteroplasmic mutations and mitochondrial genome haplogroups which are associated with these pathologies. Meanwhile some mutations and haplogroups were detected both in atherosclerosis and in its risk factors. It conveys the suggestion that there are common pathogenetic mechanisms causing these pathologies. What comes next? New paradigm of crosstalk between non-pharmaceutical (including molecular genetic) and true pharmaceutical approaches may be developed to fill the niche of effective and pathogenically targeted pretreatment and treatment of preclinical and subclinical atherosclerosis to avoid the development of chronic life-threatening disease.