EU-MASCARA

Markers for Sub-Clinical Cardiovascular Risk Assessemnt

 Partecipanti

Mappa

 Word cloud

Esplora la "nuvola delle parole (Word Cloud) per avere un'idea di massima del progetto.

 Obiettivo del progetto (Objective)

'EU-MASCARA is a collaborative project that aims to improve diagnosis of cardiovascular diseases and prediction of cardiovascular risk by analysing a panel of biomarkers. EU-MASCARA aims to examine genetic, proteomic and metabolomic markers together with markers of inflammation, oxidative stress and cardiac remodelling to study their incremental diagnostic and predictive value over and above existing diagnostic and predictive algorithms. For this purpose a large number of cohorts from different European regions, both patient and population cohorts, that have been accurately assessed for cardiovascular phenotypes are readily available to the consortium. Access to clinical samples and to standardised cardiovascular phenotypes will be granted by a strong clinical platform as one of the key work packages of EU-MASCARA. Both cross-sectional and prospective analyses will be performed that will result in the development of improved risk prediction scores. The consortium is heavily supported by contributions of SMEs in key areas of the proposed research: biomarker testing, data handling and analysis, assay development and project management. EU-MASCARA is further characterised by a strong integrative approach both within and across work packages, with results from one task informing strategies of research in other tasks. With a dedicated bioinformatics and health economic platform the most robust biomarkers will be selected and analysed for their benefit in clinical practice. EU-MASCARA will rigorously validate biomarkers that have been proposed to be associated with cardiovascular disease and risk across different disease entities and also in independent general population samples. The most robust biomarkers will be implemented in novel biochip based assays for clinical use.'

Introduzione (Teaser)

Predicting cardiovascular disease could help save millions of sufferers worldwide. European scientists are working to identify and validate biomarkers that are associated with early stages of cardiovascular disease.

Descrizione progetto (Article)

Cardiovascular diseases resulting in heart attacks, heart failure and stroke are among the leading causes of death worldwide. Factors such as hypertension (i.e. increased blood pressure) and high cholesterol levels have been linked to increased cardiovascular disease risk. Although these parameters are being monitored clinically as a means of predicting cardiovascular health, precise assessment is still not possible.

In view of this, scientists on the EU-funded 'Markers for sub-clinical cardiovascular risk assessment' (http://www.eu-mascara.eu (EU-MASCARA)) project have set out to identify novel biomarkers of cardiovascular risk. These biomarkers would provide an estimate of the patient status in terms of cardiovascular health.

To this end, project partners have analysed blood and urine samples from 350 patients with and without hypertension to select small molecules with differential expression. Additionally, they have utilised metabolomics and proteomics data from another cohort of 800 patients to identify biomarkers. To validate the association of emerging biomarkers with cardiovascular phenotypes, patients are being monitored for cardiac function. Special focus is being given to renal disease as a high risk factor for cardiovascular disease.

Genetic markers and factors related to cardiac structure, function and inflammation will also be investigated for their predictive potential. The long-term goal is to identify biomarkers for risk prediction and cardiovascular disease development.

The consortium will eventually combine established and new biomarkers with different aspects of disease pathophysiology in a predictive model. This will aid in the overall integrated analysis of complex data towards the prediction of cardiovascular disease development.

The EU-MASCARA work has significant clinical implications and is estimated to improve diagnosis and risk prediction of cardiovascular disease across Europe.