Cardiovascular diseases

From LipidomicsWiki

Jump to: navigation, search


In general hyperlipidemia, hyperlipoproteinemia or dyslipidemia is the presence of raised or abnormal levels of lipids and/or lipoproteins in the blood. Familial combined hyperlipidemia is characterized by increased hepatic secretion of apolipoprotein B conctaining VLDL and conversion to LDL in addition to accumulation of VLDL, LDL or both, depending on the efficiency of their removal [1]. So far several potential screening biomarkers have attracted attention because of their ability to predict future cardiovascular events and their mechanistic involvement in atherosclerosis-associated pathways. These include biomarkers associated with inflammation (C-reactive protein, interleukin-6 and lipoprotein-associated phospholipase A2), haemostasis/thrombosis (fibrinogen and plasminogen-activator inhibitor 1), neurohormone activation (renin and BNP), insulin resistance (insulin and haemoglobin A1C) and endothelial dysfunction (homocysteine and urinary albumin) [2]. Further biomarkers are B-type natriuretic peptide, Cystatin-C, asymmetric dimethylarginine (ADMA) and Apo B [3]. However, the value and appropriate use of these biomarkers remain a source of debate.
In addition to the well known link between defects in lipid metabolism and hyperlipidemia, lipidomic analysis is a powerful tool to reveal importance of lipids in the pathogenesis of this disease. The truly exiting work in this field is being done by lipid specialists in the future.

Especially the result of recent development in tandem mass spectrometry yielded in immense increase in importance in this field. However, there has been no cohesion in the development of lipidomics standards or even agreement on a standard nomenclature. A critical component of any lipidomic analysis is the deployment of high performance analytical capabilities. So far the creation of novel bioinformatic tools for lipidomic analysis has lagged the development of analytical techniques in contrast to genomics, transcriptomics and proteomics. A lot of work remains to be done.

References

[1] R.H.Knopp, N. Engl. J. Med., 341 (1999) 498.
[2] R.E.Gerszten and T.J.Wang, Nature, 451 (2008) 949.
[3] A.May and T.J.Wang, Trends Mol. Med., 14 (2008) 261.


Personal tools
Create a book