A study led by Fernando Rabioglio Giugni of the Heart Institute (InCor) at the University of São Paulo Medical School in Brazil, carried out during a postdoctoral fellowship at UT Southwestern Medical Center in the United States, has identified blood proteins associated with pressure in the lung arteries. The FAPESP-supported work was published in Nature Communications.
The team measured about 5,000 proteins without a predefined target. Twenty-two were linked to pulmonary pressure levels, 15 remained associated in patients assessed by catheterisation, and ten were associated with future risk of pulmonary hypertension among roughly 500,000 UK Biobank participants. The protein NOTCH3 stood out as a possible treatment target.
The disease affects between 0.5% and 1% of the population and almost 10% of people over 65. The findings are associations and the test is not yet ready for clinical use: the markers must be validated in other populations, and it remains to be seen whether the NOTCH3 pathway can be targeted with drugs.
