Newswise — Hypertension is known to occur at an earlier age in African Americans, and the early onset of persistent high blood pressure means a higher risk for heart failure. Physicians currently rely on the measurement of two proteins in the blood as biomarkers for heart failure, with limited success.
Marvin Schwalb, Ph.D., associate director of the UMDNJ-New Jersey Medical School's Institute of Genomic Medicine, is leading an effort to identify other protein variants that may be predictive biomarkers of heart failure in African Americans using the institute's new Mass Spectrometric Immunoassay (MSIA) technology. The study is funded by a $160,450 grant from the Healthcare Foundation of New Jersey.
Working with Schwalb on the one-year pilot study are Peter Tolias, Ph.D., executive director of the Institute of Genomic Medicine, and cardiologists Dr. Marc Klapholz and Dr. Edo Kaluski, who are both associate professors of medicine at the UMDNJ-New Jersey Medical School.
The MSIA technology will analyze proteins extracted from 105 blood samples collected from patients by the cardiologists. Schwalb said the UMDNJ-New Jersey Medical School is the first medical school to obtain the MSIA technology, which has been used for more than 10 years by the biopharmaceutical industry to assess the status of biopharmaceutical drugs within treated subjects during clinical trials. Having it at an academic research institution is a major advantage because its analyses will provide more detailed information about protein changes, he said.
"The classic technique of looking at protein biomarkers only tells you how much protein there is. It doesn't tell you whether there are any changes in the protein structure," explained Schwalb, who also is adjunct professor in the Department of Microbiology & Molecular Genetics and in the Department of Pediatrics at the UMDNJ-New Jersey Medical School. "With this system, we can see the difference(s) beyond quantity."
The researchers recently began to develop custom immunoassays. Traditionally, immunoassays are evaluative techniques that use antibodies to isolate and quantify proteins. With the MSIA, UMDNJ researchers will be able to identify and quantify substances in blood samples, searching for predictive protein variants related to the increased risk for heart failure.
"The identified variants can then be used as biomarkers to develop new predictive diagnostic tests as well as illuminate new targets for therapeutic drug development," said Tolias. Tolias also is professor of pediatrics at the UMDNJ-New Jersey Medical School and adjunct professor in the Department of Molecular Genetics, Microbiology and Immunology at the UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School.
Once the immunoassays are ready, the researchers can quickly analyze protein samples. The MSIA automated system can process nearly 100 samples at a time, providing almost immediate information about existing protein variants that may be predictive biomarkers of heart failure.
Following collection and analysis of preliminary data, the researchers will seek additional funding to continue this potential multi-year study with more patients from other sites.
For more information on the Institute of Genomic Medicine at UMDNJ, please visit: http://njms.umdnj.edu/genesweb2/index.html.
The University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ) is the nation's largest free-standing public health sciences university with nearly 5,700 students attending the state's three medical schools, its only dental school, a graduate school of biomedical sciences, a school of health related professions, a school of nursing and its only school of public health on five campuses. Annually, there are more than two million patient visits at UMDNJ facilities and faculty practices at campuses in Newark, New Brunswick/Piscataway, Scotch Plains, Camden and Stratford. UMDNJ operates University Hospital, a Level I Trauma Center in Newark, and University Behavioral HealthCare, a statewide mental health and addiction services network.
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