Fluid-based assays and precision medicine of cardiovascular diseases : the 'hope' for Pandora's box?

© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2019. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ..

Progresses in liquid-based assays may provide novel useful non-invasive indicators of cardiovascular (CV) diseases. By analysing circulating cells or their products in blood, saliva and urine samples, we can investigate molecular changes present at specific time points in each patient allowing sequential monitoring of disease evolution. For example, an increased number of circulating endothelial cells may be a diagnostic biomarker for diabetic nephropathy and heart failure with preserved ejection fraction. The assessment of circulating cell-free DNA (cfDNA) levels may be useful to predict severity of acute myocardial infarction, as well as diagnose heart graft rejection. Remarkably, circulating epigenetic biomarkers, including DNA methylation, histone modifications and non-coding RNAs are key pathogenic determinants of CV diseases representing putative useful biomarkers and drug targets. For example, the unmethylated FAM101A gene may specifically trace cfDNA derived from cardiomyocyte death providing a powerful diagnostic biomarker of apoptosis during ischaemia. Moreover, changes in plasma levels of circulating miR-92 may predict acute coronary syndrome onset in patients with diabetes. Now, network medicine provides a framework to analyse a huge amount of big data by describing a CV disease as a result of a chain of molecular perturbations rather than a single defect (reductionism). We outline advantages and challenges of liquid biopsy with respect to traditional tissue biopsy and summarise the main completed and ongoing clinical trials in CV diseases. Furthermore, we discuss the importance of combining fluid-based assays, big data and network medicine to improve precision medicine and personalised therapy in this field.

Medienart:

E-Artikel

Erscheinungsjahr:

2019

Erschienen:

2019

Enthalten in:

Zur Gesamtaufnahme - volume:72

Enthalten in:

Journal of clinical pathology - 72(2019), 12 vom: 01. Dez., Seite 785-799

Sprache:

Englisch

Beteiligte Personen:

Benincasa, Giuditta [VerfasserIn]
Mansueto, Gelsomina [VerfasserIn]
Napoli, Claudio [VerfasserIn]

Links:

Volltext

Themen:

Biomarkers
Cardiovascular diseases
Cell-Free Nucleic Acids
Imaging
Journal Article
Liquid biopsy
Network medicine
Omics platforms
Personalized therapy
Review

Anmerkungen:

Date Completed 02.12.2019

Date Revised 02.12.2019

published: Print-Electronic

Citation Status MEDLINE

doi:

10.1136/jclinpath-2019-206178

funding:

Förderinstitution / Projekttitel:

PPN (Katalog-ID):

NLM302179887