Transcriptomic profiling of the four adenosine receptors in human leukocytes of heart failure patients

In this study the transcriptomic profiling of adenosine receptors (ARs) in human leukocytes of heart failure (HF) patients as a function of clinical severity, assessing the possible changes with respect to healthy subjects (C), was evaluated. Total RNA was extracted from leukocytes of C (n = 8) and of HF patients (NYHA I-II n = 9; NYHA III-IV n = 14) with a PAXgene Blood RNA Kit. An increase as a function of clinical severity was observed in each AR (A1R: C = 0.02 ± 0.009, NYHA I-II = 0.21 ± 0.09, NYHA III-IV = 3.6 ± 1.3, P = 0.03 C versus NYHA III-IV, P = 0.02 NYHA I-II versus NYHA III-IV; A2aR: C = 0.2 ± 0.05, NYHA I-II = 0.19 ± 0.04, NYHA III-IV = 1.32 ± 0.33, P = 0.005 C versus NYHA III-IV, P = 0.003 NYHA I-II versus NYHA III-IV; A2bR: C = 1.78 ± 0.36, NYHA I-II = 1.35 ± 0.29, NYHA III-IV = 4.07 ± 1.21, P = 0.03: NYHA I-II versus NYHA III-IV; A3R: C = 0.76 ± 0.21, NYHA I-II = 0.94 ± 0.19, NYHA III-IV = 3.14 ± 0.77, P = 0.01 C versus NYHA III-IV and NYHA I-II versus NYHA III-IV, resp.). The mRNA expression of the ectonucleoside triphosphate diphosphohydrolase (CD39) and the ecto-5'-nucleotidase (CD73) were also evaluated. They resulted up-regulated. These findings show that components of adenosine metabolism and signalling are altered to promote adenosine production and signalling in HF patients. Thus, HF may benefit from adenosine-based drug therapy after confirmation by clinical trials.