Acute ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction is associated with decreased human antimicrobial peptide LL-37 and increased human neutrophil peptide-1 to 3 in plasma.
Zhao. Hanjun H; Yan. Hongbing H; Yamashita. Shizuya S; Li. Wenzheng W; Liu. Chen C; Chen. Yi Y; Zhou. Peng P; Chi. Yunpeng Y; Wang. Shaoping S; Zhao. Bo B; Song. Li L
Key Findings
- LL‑37 levels are transiently lower in acute heart attack patients and recover quickly
- HNP1‑3 levels are higher in heart attack patients and remain elevated
- Both LL‑37 and HNP1‑3 have moderate diagnostic accuracy for detecting STEMI (AUC ~0.7)
Practical Outcomes
- The findings are mainly observational; they suggest LL‑37 could be a biomarker for heart attacks, but there’s no evidence to change supplement or treatment routines now. Biohackers should wait for more research before using LL‑37 or HNP1‑3 in health protocols.
Summary
When someone has a sudden heart attack (STEMI), a natural antimicrobial peptide called LL‑37 drops in the blood but returns to normal within a day, while other peptides (HNP1‑3) rise and stay high. The study shows these changes can somewhat tell a heart attack apart from stable heart disease, but they don’t yet tell us how to prevent or treat it.
Abstract
Increasing evidence indicates that antimicrobial peptides, human neutrophil peptide-1, -2, and -3 (HNP1-3) and human antimicrobial peptide LL-37 are involved in the pathophysiology of atherosclerosis; however, little is known about their circulating protein levels in acute myocardial infarction (AMI). We therefore investigated whether their plasma levels are associated with stable coronary artery disease (CAD) and acute ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI). Systemic or local (culprit artery) blood samples were obtained from 112 consecutive male subjects including no CAD (n = 31) controls, stable CAD (n = 44) and STEMI (n = 47). Plasma HNP1-3 and LL-37 levels were measured by the ready-to-use solid-phase enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) based on the sandwich principle. Systemic HNP1-3 in STEMI was increased compared with no CAD (p = 0.000) and stable CAD (p = 0.008), and systemic HNP1-3 in stable CAD was higher than in no CAD (p = 0.004). Systemic LL-37 in STEMI was decreased compared with no CAD (p = 0.009) and stable CAD (p =0.001) and restored within 1 day following STEMI (p = 0.000). Local LL-37 levels in STEMI were higher than systemic levels (p = 0.013). The areas under the ROC curve of systemic HNP1-3 and LL-37 for STEMI were 0.717 (95% CI: 0.624, 0.811; p = 0.000) and 0.702 (95% CI: 0.609, 0.795; p = 0.000), respectively. In addition, ischemia time in the STEMI group correlated with systemic and local levels of HNP1-3 (rs = -0.360, p = 0.013; rs = 0.608, p = 0.000, respectively), and was also associated with systemic and local levels of hs-CRP (rs = 0.408, p = 0.004; rs = 0.425, p = 0.003, respectively), but not with those of LL-37 (all p > 0.05). STEMI was associated with transiently decreased LL-37, but persistently increased HNP1-3 in the systemic circulation and the diagnostic accuracy for STEMI were moderate. Future studies should pay more attention to their prognostic values for myocardial infarction.
Study Information
pubmed
2011
2011-12-21T00:00:00.000Z
10.5551/jat.10108