About the Authors

Stefanos Leptidis

Contributed equally to this work with: Stefanos Leptidis, Hamid el Azzouzi

Affiliation Department of Cardiology, CARIM School for Cardiovascular Diseases, Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands

Hamid el Azzouzi

Contributed equally to this work with: Stefanos Leptidis, Hamid el Azzouzi

Affiliation Department of Cardiology, CARIM School for Cardiovascular Diseases, Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands

Sjoukje I. Lok

Affiliation Department of Pathology, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht, The Netherlands

Roel de Weger

Affiliation Department of Pathology, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht, The Netherlands

Serv Olieslagers

Affiliation Department of Cardiology, CARIM School for Cardiovascular Diseases, Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands

Natasja Kisters

Affiliation Department of Cardiology, CARIM School for Cardiovascular Diseases, Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands

Gustavo J. Silva

Affiliation Department of Cardiology, CARIM School for Cardiovascular Diseases, Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands

Stephane Heymans

Affiliation Department of Cardiology, CARIM School for Cardiovascular Diseases, Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands

Edwin Cuppen

Affiliation Hubrecht Institute, Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences, Utrecht, The Netherlands

Eugene Berezikov

Affiliation Hubrecht Institute, Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences, Utrecht, The Netherlands

Leon J. De Windt

Affiliation Department of Cardiology, CARIM School for Cardiovascular Diseases, Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands

Paula da Costa Martins

p.dacostamartins@maastrichtuniversity.nl

Affiliation Department of Cardiology, CARIM School for Cardiovascular Diseases, Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands

Competing Interests

The authors have read the journal's policy and have the following conflicts: E.C. and E.B. are co-founders and scientific advisory board members of InteRNA Genomics BV. P.D.C.M. and L.D.W. filed and licensed a cardiovascular miRNA patent titled “Means and methods for counteracting, delaying and/or preventing heart disease”. All other authors report no conflict of interest. There are no further patents, products in development or marketed products to declare. This does not alter the authors' adherence to all the PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials, as detailed online in the guide for authors.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: SL HeA SIL SO EC EB LJDW PdCM. Performed the experiments: SL HeA SO NK GJS EC. Analyzed the data: SL HeA RdW EB LJDW PdCM. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: RdW EC EB LJDW PdCM SH. Wrote the paper: SL HeA LJDW PdCM.