Assessment of miR‑126 Expression and some biochemical parameters in Patients with Coronary Artery Disease

Farmesk Ridha Ibrahim *

Department of Basic Sciences, College of Dentistry, University of Kirkuk, Kirkuk, Iraq.
* Corresponding Author
ORCID Detail
 
Research Article
International Journal of Life Science Research Updates, 2026, 03(01), 001–008.
Article DOI: 10.53430/ijlsru.2026.3.1.0021
Publication history: 
Received on 12 August 2026; revised on 20 September 2026; accepted on 22 September 2026
 
Abstract: 
Background: Coronary artery disease (CAD) accounts for major morbidity and mortality worldwide. Objectives: This study was designed to investigate the expression level of miR-126 in the patients with CAD as well as to verify choosen inflammatory and biochemical parameters related to the disease. The study also examined the association of miR-126 expression with age, gender and BMI to evaluate its possible utility as CAD biomarker.
Materials and Methods: A case–control study was performed at the Azadi Teaching Hospital, Kirkuk city, Iraq during the period from July to October, 2025. The study included 163 participants, including 83 patients with CAD and 80 age- and sexmatched, healthy controls. The biochemical and inflammatory cytokines were measured by ELISA and the expression of miR-126 gene was assessed by RT-PCR after extraction of RNA from blood samples.
Results: The study demonstrated that 37.3% of CAD patients were aged ≥60 years, followed by 26.5% in the 50–59 years group, 20.5% in the 40–49 years group, and 3.6% aged <40 years. Males represented 77.1% of the patients, while females accounted for 22.9%. Regarding BMI, 56.6% of patients were obese, 37.3% were overweight, and only 6.0% had a normal BMI. Inflammatory cytokines were significantly elevated in CAD patients compared with controls, where IL-1α increased from 2.84 ± 0.51 to 53.21 ± 7.45 pg/mL, TNF-α from 37.25 ± 4.83 to 109.37 ± 8.15 pg/mL, IL-6 from 7.63 ± 2.26 to 36.46 ± 5.04 pg/mL, and IL-17 from 11.39 ± 2.47 to 68.11 ± 3.61 pg/mL (P = 0.001 for all). In addition, miR-126 expression was significantly upregulated in CAD patients with a mean fold change of 2.58 compared to 0.96 in controls. Pearson correlation analysis showed significant positive associations between miR-126 and TNF-α (r = 0.68), IL-17 (r = 0.63), IL-1α (r = 0.61), and IL-6 (r = 0.57), as well as with age (r = 0.42) and BMI (r = 0.39), while no significant correlation was observed with gender (r = 0.18, P = 0.091).
Conclusions: The study demonstrates strong associations between CAD and systemic inflammation and metabolic risk factors, and suggests that miR-126 may represent a new circulating biomarker reflecting disease severity and inflammatory state.
 
Keywords: 
Coronary artery disease, MiR-126, Inflammatory cytokines, Atherosclerosis, BMI.
 
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