International research team and scientists from the Munich Center. Helmholtz discovered a number of new genetic risk factors that contribute to the development of dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) and other cardiovascular diseases.
It is known that some genes are associated with an increased risk of various heart lesions, and many of them are still not accurately determined. The difficulty of studying the processes at the RNA level is due to the lack of materials for the study. “It’s very difficult to get human heart tissue for genetic analysis,” explains Norbert Hübner, one of the leading authors of the work.
To conduct the study, scientists took the necessary material from the left ventricle during heart transplantation. A total of 97 patients with DCMW and 108 healthy donors were involved in the work. An analysis of the transcriptome was conducted, during which 228 genes were found, which were differentially expressed in healthy and diseased DCM patients.
The researchers noted that most of these differences were found in genes that are already known as risk factors for DCMD. But, in addition, 60 new genes have been found, which until now have not been associated with the development of this disease.
“The findings are a valuable resource for the study of cardiovascular disease in general,” says Matthias Haining, lead author of the study. He also added that the development of diagnostic measures based on the analysis of genetic material taking into account the data obtained will help identify people with an increased risk of early DCM.
Norbert Hübner noted that the results are important for another reason: “We have become better at understanding the processes leading to the development of DCMP. Such genetic changes go beyond ordinary mutations.
