The function and biomarker potential of mitochondrial microRNAs in hypertension

Hypertension is an extreme public health problem affecting nearly one third of the World’s adult population. Most cardiovascular diseases are provoked by hypertension resulting in an estimated 9.4 million deaths every year. Surprisingly, the diagnosis of hypertension has changed very little over the past 100 years. Furthermore, the epidemic proportion of hypertension worldwide pinpoints the necessity for the discovery of novel antihypertensive therapies and biomarkers for diagnosis. Easily obtainable in the blood, microRNAs constitute an accessible source of biomarkers and therapeutic targets for clinical application. Consequently, we hypothesize that particularly mitochondrial microRNAs play a critical role in hypertension development Thus, the main objectives of the MITO project are:
- To discover novel candidate microRNAs (miRNAs) associated with hypertension
- To validate candidate miRNAs and explore sex differences
- To determine functional associations between miRNAs and hypertension
A cohort of 174 participants (89 patients with hypertension and 85 age- and sex-matched controls) is used for the present project.