Decreased plasma levels of sestrin-1 and sestrin-2 in patients with coronary artery disease and their association with the disease severity.

Background: Oxidative stress has been well established to participate in the pathology of coronary artery disease (CAD). Sestrin family of proteins have recently emerged as important suppressors of oxidative stress. However, only few studies have reported the levels of sestrins and their clinical significance in CAD patients.

Methods: Participants were ninety patients referred to the cardiac angiography unit for cardiac angiography. Thirty-two subjects were diagnosed as having stable CAD, twenty patients had unstable CAD and thirty-eight subjects had no CAD. All patients underwent angiography and the severity of coronary stenosis was calculated by modified Gensini score. The levels of glucose, triglyceride, total cholesterol, HDL, LDL, hs-CRP and hematological parameters were determined in the fasting blood samples by routine methods. Plasma levels of sestrin-1 and sestrin-2 were measured by ELISA.

Results: Although the plasma levels of sestrin-1 were significantly lower in both case groups compared with the control group (P<0.001), there were no significant differences in sestrin-1 levels between the two patient groups. The levels of sestrin-2 were also significantly lower in both CAD groups than in controls (P=0.001), but no significant difference was found between stable and unstable patients. In the whole study subjects, plasma sestrin-1 and sestrin-2 showed negative correlation with the coronary artery score. By multivariate analysis only sestrin-2 levels were significantly related to CAD severity.

Conclusion: Our findings showed a negative association of sestrin levels and the coronary stenosis severity.