NIA 2016 Winner: Metabonomic applications in cardiovascular disease
We are delighted to announce Panagiotis Vorkas as the winner of the 2016 NIA. Many congratulations to him from the whole Bioanalysis Zone team!
Panagiotis Vorkas
Research Associate
Faculty of Medicine, Departments of Surgery & Cancer,
Imperial College London
What will you learn?
- a novel hypothesis for plaque formation in artherosclerosis
- how specific lipid classes in patient blood are associated with coronary calcification
- insight into potential future research directions for diagnosis and treatment of CVD
Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of mortality and morbidity in the West. Life-threatening events can occur as a result of CVD manifestations, such as atherosclerosis, where rupture of the atherosclerotic plaque can occur. In a comprehensive metabonomic study, plaques were compared to adjacent (non-plaque) tissue. Identified altered pathways constitute recognised but also new discoveries. Consequently, a novel hypothesis for plaque formation was generated, which is further investigated in vitro.
Another manifestation of CVD is ectopic vascular calcification. The extent of calcification in calcific coronary artery disease has been correlated to cardiovascular events. A lipidomic approach was applied in a small group (n=70) of human blood serum/plasma. Three major lipid classes demonstrated significant dysregulations in patients with coronary calcification. In a validation cohort (n=531), two of these lipid classes were further verified.
Outcomes from the two studies showed common metabolic signatures. This provides afford validity to the overall results which will guide the pursuit for diagnostic markers and targets for pharmacotherapeutic intervention.
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