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Polymorphisms of microRNAs are associated with salt sensitivity in a Han Chinese population: the EpiSS study

Journal of Human Hypertension volume 36, pages 171–183 (2022)Cite this article

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Abstract

The majority of single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) association studies of salt sensitivity (SS) have focused on SNPs in protein-coding genes rather than on SNPs in noncoding RNAs. This study attempted to identify the association between whole blood microRNA (miRNA)-related SNPs and the risk of SS in a Han Chinese population. A case-control study of 762 individuals was performed. A modified Sullivan’s acute oral saline load and diuresis shrinkage test was used to assess SS. All SNPs were analysed by RT-PCR on a Sequenom Mass ARRAY Platform (Sequenom, San Diego, CA, USA). A genetic risk score (GRS) was used to evaluate the joint genetic effect. In total, 24 miRNA-related SNPs were genotyped, four of which (miR-1307-5p/rs11191676, miR-1307-5p/rs2292807, miR-145/rs41291957 and miR-4638-3p/rs6601178) were associated with both SS and salt sensitivity of blood pressure (SSBP) (p ≤ 0.05). MiR-382-5p/rs4906032 and miR-15b-5/rs10936201 were associated with SSBP. Weighted GRS showed that participants in the second, third and fourth quartiles had 1.760-fold (95% CI: 1.068-2.903), 2.450-fold (95% CI: 1.470-4.083) and 2.774-fold (95% CI: 1.680-4.582) increased risk of SS, respectively. Bioinformatics analysis indicated that these four SNP risk alleles may affect transcription factor binding and influence promoter activity. A total of six miRNA-related SNPs were found to be associated with SS or SSBP, and the presence of multiple risk alleles resulted in increased risk level.

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Fig. 1: Effect size (β) and 95% CI for association between miRNA-related SNPs and blood pressure changes in acute salt load process.
Fig. 2: Effect size (β) and 95% CI for association between miRNA-related SNPs and blood pressure changes during diuresis shrinkage process.

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Acknowledgements

The English language usage in this paper was corrected and certified by https://www.aje.cn/services/editing/. The authors are grateful to the patients for participating in this study.

Funding

This research was funded by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (grant number No.2016YFC0900600/2016YFC0900603), the Natural Science Foundation of China (grant number 81973121, 81373076), and the Beijing Natural Science Foundation (grant number 7172023).

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  1. Department of Epidemiology and Health Statistics, School of Public Health, Capital Medical University and Beijing Municipal Key Laboratory of Clinical Epidemiology, Beijing, China

    Yunyi Xie, Zheng Liu, Kuo Liu, Han Qi, Wenjuan Peng, Han Cao, Chunyue Guo, Yanyan Sun, Xiaohui Liu & Ling Zhang

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Correspondence to Ling Zhang.

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Xie, Y., Liu, Z., Liu, K. et al. Polymorphisms of microRNAs are associated with salt sensitivity in a Han Chinese population: the EpiSS study. J Hum Hypertens 36, 171–183 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41371-021-00485-9

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