Biomarkers found for postmenopausal cardiovascular disease

Ross Prentice, from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Centre, Seattle, USA, worked with a team of researchers to carry out proteomic analyses on samples from 800 women who developed CHD, 800 who developed stroke and a group of matched controls. He said, “We contrasted pools formed by equal plasma volumes from 100 cases or from 100 pair-matched controls, with eight such pool pairs for each of the study diseases. The two novel markers we identified, B2M and IGFBP4, have the potential to help elucidate hormone therapy effects on the cardiovascular diseases as observed in the WHI randomized controlled trials”.

B2M has previously been associated with CHD risk factors including age, blood pressure, and C-reactive protein, and has been reported to show an inverse association with high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol. According to Prentice, “Our finding of B2M elevation in plasma obtained months or years prior to CHD diagnosis appears to be novel, however”. The identification of IGFBP4 as a risk marker for stroke in postmenopausal women also appears to be a novel finding. Speaking about the results, Prentice said, “Blood protein concentrations provide a source for novel disease risk markers that may be modifiable by treatments or other exposures. As such, protein markers have potential to enhance the understanding of disease pathogenesis, and to elucidate biological processes whereby an exposure affects disease risk.”

Notes to Editors

1. Novel proteins associated with risk for coronary heart disease or stroke among postmenopausal women identified by in-depth plasma proteome profiling
Ross L Prentice, Sophie J Paczesny, Aaron Aragaki, Lynn M Amon, Lin Chen, Sharon J Pitteri, Martin McIntosh, Pei Wang, Tina Busald Buson, Judith Hsia, Rebecca D Jackson, Jacques E Rossouw, JoAnn E Manson, Karen Johnson, Charles Eaton and Samir M Hanash

Genome Medicine (in press)

2. Genome Medicine is an online peer-reviewed journal which publishes open access research articles of outstanding quality in all areas of medicine studied from a genomic or post-genomic perspective. The journal has a special focus on the latest technologies and findings that have an impact on the understanding and management of human health and disease.

3. BioMed Central (http://www.biomedcentral.com/) is an STM (Science, Technology and Medicine) publisher which has pioneered the open access publishing model. All peer-reviewed research articles published by BioMed Central are made immediately and freely accessible online, and are licensed to allow redistribution and reuse. BioMed Central is part of Springer Science+Business Media, a leading global publisher in the STM sector.

Media Contact

Graeme Baldwin EurekAlert!

More Information:

http://www.biomedcentral.com

All latest news from the category: Life Sciences and Chemistry

Articles and reports from the Life Sciences and chemistry area deal with applied and basic research into modern biology, chemistry and human medicine.

Valuable information can be found on a range of life sciences fields including bacteriology, biochemistry, bionics, bioinformatics, biophysics, biotechnology, genetics, geobotany, human biology, marine biology, microbiology, molecular biology, cellular biology, zoology, bioinorganic chemistry, microchemistry and environmental chemistry.

Back to home

Comments (0)

Write a comment

Newest articles

Lighting up the future

New multidisciplinary research from the University of St Andrews could lead to more efficient televisions, computer screens and lighting. Researchers at the Organic Semiconductor Centre in the School of Physics and…

Researchers crack sugarcane’s complex genetic code

Sweet success: Scientists created a highly accurate reference genome for one of the most important modern crops and found a rare example of how genes confer disease resistance in plants….

Evolution of the most powerful ocean current on Earth

The Antarctic Circumpolar Current plays an important part in global overturning circulation, the exchange of heat and CO2 between the ocean and atmosphere, and the stability of Antarctica’s ice sheets….

Partners & Sponsors