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Risk scores for atrial fibrillation


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Cardiovascular diseases can be treated better today than ever before. At the same time, they remain among the leading causes of death. Understanding cardiovascular disease in detail is essential for further progress. Researchers from Hamburg, Lübeck and Munich have used a particular analysis method to examine the minor units in the body and create risk scores for atrial fibrillation.

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Scientists at the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE) and experts from the University of Lübeck and Helmholtz Zentrum München, have now succeeded in establishing new polygenetic risk scores and identifying molecules. They can use the risk scores to understand the mechanisms of atrial fibrillation better.

The researchers used a complex analytical method for their work - a so-called multi-OMICs approach. OMICs analyses examine the smallest units in the body at the genetic, expression or protein level. The multi-OMICs approach examines these complex data in the context of clinical patient data.

 „This novel multi-OMICs approach in atrial fibrillation is unique so far and enables the identification of genes and pathophysiological pathways in cardiovascular diseases even in smaller data sets," say the study leaders Prof. Tanja Zeller and Prof. Dr. Renate Schnabel from the UKE University Heart and Vascular Center. The two scientists are principal investigators at the DZHK.

The scientists have published their results in the journal Nature Communications. The research project is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research

 

Publication: M. Heinig, B. Schnabel et. al. Tissue-specific multi-omics analysis of atrial fibrillation. Nature Communications. 2022.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-27953-1

Scientific Contact: Prof. Dr. Renate Schnabel, University Heart & Vascular Center Hamburg (UHZ)  r.schnabel(at)uke.de

Source: Press Release Universitätsklinikums Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE)