Identification of a new target of miR-16, Vacuolar Protein Sorting 4a.

The rationale was to utilize a bioinformatics approach to identify miRNA binding sites in genes with single nucleotide mutations (SNPs) to discover pathways in heart failure (HF).The objective was to focus on the genes containing miRNA binding sites with miRNAs that were significantly altered in end-stage HF and in response to a left ventricular assist device (LVAD).BEDTools v2.14.3 was used to discriminate SNPs within predicted 3'UTR miRNA binding sites. A member of the miR-15/107 family, miR-16, was decreased in the circulation of end-stage HF patients and increased in response to a LVAD (p