MicroRNAs and Sepsis-Induced Cardiac Dysfunction: A Systematic Review

Abstract

Sepsis is a severe condition characterized by systemic inflammation. One of the most involved organs in sepsis is the heart. On the other hand, heart failure and dysfunction are some of the most leading causes of death in septic patients. miRNAs are short single-strand non-coding ribonucleic acids involved in the regulation of gene expression on a post-transcriptional phase, which means they are a part of the epigenetic process. Recently, researchers have found that miRNA expression in tissues and blood differs depending on different conditions. Because of this property, their use as serum sepsis biomarkers has also been explored. A narrative review is carried out to gather and summarize what is known about miRNAs' influence on cardiac dysfunction during sepsis. When reviewing the literature, we found at least 77 miRNAs involved in cardiac inflammation and dysfunction during sepsis. In the future, miRNAs may be used as early sepsis-induced cardiac dysfunction biomarkers or as new drug targets. This could help clinicians to early detect, prevent, and treat cardiac damage. The potential role of miRNAs as new diagnostic tools and therapeutic strategies worth deepening the complex network between non-coding RNA and biological pathways. Additional studies are needed to further investigate their role in sepsis-induced myocardium injury.

Keywords: cardiac dysfunction; long noncoding RNA; messenger RNA; microRNA; sepsis.

Figure 1

Methodology search strategy: we identified 152 articles, the screening based on their abstract left 109 studies and after a careful evaluation based on the aims of this review 35 research articles were included.

Figure 2

Mechanism of action of the activation of the major players of cardiac dysfunction induced by sepsis with up and down regulation of miRNAs involved in the mechanism of infection.