“Today, we only treat the underlying causes of heart diseases to a limited extent. In order to develop targeted treatments, we need deeper insight into what drives these diseases,” says researcher behind new examine. Credit score: William Brøns Petersen/College of Copenhagen
Researchers from the College of Copenhagen have developed a technique that enables for the evaluation of 1000’s of proteins in coronary heart tissue. This supplies completely new insights into the traits of coronary heart illnesses and will pave the best way for extra focused therapies.
Annually, cardiovascular illnesses have an effect on greater than 65,000 Danes—situations that declare the lives of 1 in 5 sufferers. Though diagnostic capabilities have improved, we nonetheless lack basic information about what drives the event of coronary heart illnesses.
Usually, these illnesses are solely detected as soon as seen modifications within the coronary heart’s construction or operate happen. Nonetheless, analysis exhibits that illness processes start earlier—on the molecular stage.
Of their new examine, the researchers have developed a technique that permits the evaluation of coronary heart proteins to determine molecular patterns attribute of coronary heart illnesses.
“With this method, we can create a molecular map of what characterizes the disease. We can see what has driven the disease at a molecular level,” says Professor Alicia Lundby from the Division of Biomedical Sciences on the College of Copenhagen, lead creator of the examine lately printed within the journal Nature Cardiovascular Analysis.
“We actually know surprisingly little about what causes and drives heart diseases at the molecular level. But with this method, we can now investigate heart diseases where we lack knowledge about the underlying mechanisms,” says Lundby.
Ultrathin slices of coronary heart muscle
Within the new examine, researchers mapped the inherited coronary heart illness arrhythmogenic proper ventricular cardiomyopathy (ARVC).
To know the molecular causes of the illness, they carefully examined tissue samples from coronary heart sufferers—so-called biopsies. These biopsies had been beforehand collected throughout diagnostic procedures on the hospitals.
First, they minimize ultrathin slices—simply one-hundredth of a millimeter thick—from the samples after which carried out a proteomic evaluation of the slices.
Proteomic evaluation permits for the measurement and examination of as much as 10,000 totally different proteins in a single tissue pattern, offering a much more detailed image of the organic foundation of the illness than earlier strategies.
Though proteomic evaluation is a identified methodology in scientific analysis, it has beforehand been troublesome to use to diagnostically collected coronary heart tissue. These biopsies are dealt with in ways in which beforehand restricted proteomic evaluation. The researchers have now overcome this barrier, opening the door to utilizing already collected biopsies to achieve new insights into coronary heart illnesses.
A basis for medical therapy
The researchers imagine the evaluation methodology can be utilized to raised perceive many different coronary heart illnesses and their underlying causes.
“Today, we only treat the underlying causes of heart diseases to a limited extent. In order to develop targeted treatments, we need deeper insight into what drives these diseases,” says Lundby.
“For example, heart failure can be caused by fibrosis, inflammation, or changes in mitochondrial function in the heart muscle. The diagnosis is the same—heart failure—but the molecular causes can be vastly different and ideally require different treatment strategies.”
The subsequent step for the researchers is to map a broader spectrum of coronary heart illnesses and determine their molecular traits. The purpose is to create a basis for extra focused medicine for coronary heart sufferers.
“We hope our results can reveal which parts of the protein landscape are misregulated and drive heart disease. Once we have that knowledge, we can investigate whether existing drugs can be used more precisely or use the mapping as a basis for developing new treatments,” says Lundby.
Extra info:
Jonathan S. Achter et al, Quantitative proteomics of formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded cardiac specimens uncovers protein signatures of specialised areas and affected person teams, Nature Cardiovascular Analysis (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s44161-025-00721-2
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