Researchers identify proteins linked with major cardiovascular event risk in older adults
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Key takeaways:
- In the study, 39% of patients had a major cardiovascular event during 2.9 years.
- Overall, 48 proteins were associated with a major cardiovascular event in certain patients.
Researchers identified multiple proteins linked to a higher risk of major cardiovascular events in a study that analyzed blood tests from older adults with kidney disease.
“People with chronic kidney disease are at high risk of cardiovascular disease, and this risk increases both with age and CKD progression,” Samantha Hayward, MBChB, of Translational Health Sciences, Bristol Medical School in the U.K., wrote with colleagues. But “older people living with advanced CKD are often excluded from biomarker studies or comprise too small a proportion of the study cohort to elicit [generalizable] results.”
Adults aged 65 years or older with an eGFR equal to or less than 20 mL/min/1.73 m2 were enrolled as part of the European Quality observational cohort study. Researchers had two cohorts of patients: discovery group with 611 adults and replication group with 292 adults.
The researchers examined 184 inflammatory and cardiovascular proteins to identify potential biomarkers for major cardiovascular events (MACE) as a primary outcome. They collected blood samples at baseline and analyzed each protein individually.
Findings showed that during a median follow-up of 2.9 years, 39% of participants experienced MACE. A total of 48 proteins were associated with MACE in the discovery cohort, and nine were replicated in the replication cohort. Three proteins — tenascin (TNC), fibroblast growth factor-23 (FGF-23), and V-set and immunoglobulin domain-containing protein 2 (VSIG2) — had strong links with MACE, even after adjusting for traditional and CKD-specific risk factors and proteinuria, according to the study. These proteins were also associated with both atherosclerotic and nonatherosclerotic MACE.
All replicated proteins except carbonic anhydrase 1 and carbonic anhydrase 3 were associated with nonatherosclerotic MACE, according to the researchers.
“Our findings corroborate previously reported relationships between FGF-23, vascular cell adhesion protein-1, TNC and placental growth factor with cardiovascular outcomes in CKD. We identify five proteins not previously linked with MACE in CKD that may be targets for future therapies,” the authors wrote. “Further work is needed to confirm our findings and to determine whether these proteins can be used to guide treatment.”
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