Biomarkers of Cerebro-Cardiovascular Risk

In the field of cardiovascular disease, blood biomarkers are of major importance today for diagnostic purposes or in therapeutic decision-making. These biomarkers, such as troponin or NT-proBNP, are currently used in everyday practice in certain diseases,  such as acute coronary syndrome or heart failure. New biomarkers have recently emerged and are generating much interest in a context in which medical research is moving towards personalized diagnosis and therapeutic management.
The objective of our research team is to study the pertinence of new biomarkers, which will provide better diagnostic and prognostic information or to assess the response to treatments in patients who have suffered myocardial infarction or stroke. This objective is particularly pertinent for stroke, as no biomarkers are currently used in clinical practice.

Our team has recently contributed to showing the interest of measuring several new biomarkers during the management of myocardial infarction: methylated derivatives of L-Arginine, or members of the Growth Differentiation Factor (GDF) family.
Asymmetric dimethylarginine or ADMA, is a methylated derivative of L-arginine, which is a competitive endogenous inhibitor of NO synthases. In our team, we showed that the plasma level of ADMA was a predictor of cardiovascular mortality in patients who have suffered myocardial infarction, and that the level of ADMA correlated strongly with low HDL levels in patients in the acute phase of myocardial infarction.
Cytokines of the GDF family are a new class of molecules with great potential in terms of assessing cardio-metabolic risk. Numerous studies have shown the essential role of GDF-15 as a biomarker of cardiovascular risk. Our team has shown the interest of measuring GDF-15 in contexts ranging from heart surgery on CPB to atrial fibrillation. We are currently exploring thee the interest of measuring GDF-15 in stroke and the preliminary results are particularly promising.