Prevention and treatment of atrial fibrillation

Abstract

There is provided a nucleic acid that inhibits miR-31 in an atrial myocyte, for use in the prevention or treatment of atrial fibrillation in a subject. Also provided is a method for diagnosing or predicting the risk of atrial fibrillation in a subject, said method comprising: (i) determining the amount of miR-31 in a sample from the subject; (ii) comparing the amount of miR-31 in the sample with a reference standard; and (iii) identifying a difference in the amount of miR-31 in the sample relative to the reference standard; wherein an increase in the amount of miR-31 in the sample compared to the reference standard correlates with the presence of or an increased risk of atrial fibrillation in the subject; and wherein a decrease, or no difference in the amount of miR-31 in the sample compared to the reference standard correlates with the absence of an increased risk of atrial fibrillation in the subject.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.