Discovery of novel biomarkers for cardiovascular disease, focus on endothelial specific proteins - a SCAPIS pilot study

Sammanfattning: SCAPIS is a national project in Sweden and stands for Swedish CardioPulmonary bioImage Study. The objective of SCAPIS is to find biomarkers in order to improve the risk prediction and lower the death rate of Cardiovascular disease (CVD). CVD is a big health problem and is one of the main causes of death in many industrial countries. It is usually related to atherosclerosis, which is plaque buildup in the arteries and can result in a heart attack or stroke. This study is a part of SCAPIS pilot study and focuses on analyzing endothelial specific proteins by a single binder assay in order to compare the relative protein levels within different known risk groups for CVD; smoking, BMI, hypertension, diabetes and coronary artery calcification score (CACS). Endothelial cells line the blood vessels and are involved in many important processes, such regulating the vessel’s structure and function, regulation of blood pressure, inflammation and hemostasis. Proteins involved in these functions tend to be overexpressed in endothelial cells, hence endothelial specific proteins. Several studies have determined that dysregulation of endothelial function can lead to atherosclerosis and cardiovascular disorders. Based on the results from a discovery screening, several endothelial specific proteins were selected and analyzed by a single binder assay. Some interesting proteins showed a large separation between the cases and controls in one or several of the known risk groups for CVD, for example between smokers and non-smokers. In this study, the proteins that are affected by (p-value<0.01) two or more risk groups are of higher interest, since this could indicate that the protein might be affected by or involved in the development of CVD. However, these proteins have to be studied further, for example with a dual binder assay, in order to determine if some of them could be used as a biomarker for CVD.