Coronary heart disease proteins identified

FARMINGTON, Conn., June 27 (UPI) -- U.S. scientists have created a technique to provide the first large-scale identification of the proteins that are involved in coronary heart disease.

David Han and colleagues at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine said the new information will help scientists better understand the progression of the disease, improve diagnosis and detect early pathological signs more efficiently.

Coronary heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States but exactly what occurs inside the walls of diseased blood vessels has not been completely understood.

The new technique called direct tissue proteomics identifies the proteins expressed in the coronary arteries of heart disease patients, allowing researchers to compare those proteins with ones present in healthy blood vessels.

Han and his team found about 800 proteins, some of them not previously known to be involved in heart disease. The researchers also used another proteomics method to detect cytokines directly from diseased coronary arteries -- an approach they said might uncover important biomarkers relevant to other diseases.

The research appears in the June issue of the journal Molecular & Cellular Proteomics.