Knowing which biomarkers to look for is critical to diagnosing and preventing ASCVD, and a new JAMA study suggests calprotectin could be the key to catching ASCVD early.
- Calprotectin is a protein released by white blood cells during inflammation, usually in the gastrointestinal tract.
- As a result, it’s commonly used to diagnose Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, but hasn’t been explored in CVD until now.
So how does calprotectin predict ASCVD? To answer this, researchers measured calprotectin levels in plasma collected from 2.4k participants during Phase 2 of the Dallas Heart Study and found that…
- Log-transformed calprotectin levels were associated with an increased risk of ASCVD events over the study’s eight year follow-up (HR: 1.98 per level increase).
- Higher calprotectin levels were associated with older age, male sex, Black race, hypertension, diabetes, and smoking.
- People with higher calprotectin also had higher CAC scores, A1c, LDL-C, triglycerides, and lower HDL.
Calprotectin’s ability to predict ASCVD remained statistically significant even after researchers adjusted for prior ASCVD (HR: 1.61) and traditional risk factors alongside hs-CRP, NT-proBNP, and hs-cTnT levels (HR: 1.43).
Digging into calprotectin’s role in ASCVD, researchers also conducted in-vitro experiments and observed that…
- Calprotectin damages endothelial integrity and decreases nitric oxide production in the blood vessels, indicating a direct role in ASCVD development.
The Takeaway
Catching ASCVD early is central to treating it and extending a patient’s lifespan, especially since once a blood vessel’s walls are scarred, little can be done to fix them. So, another biomarker for detecting ASCVD could play a big role if future studies align with this one.
