Biomarkers of Inherited Cardiovascular Conditions

In young adults and children inherited cardiac conditions (ICCs) that affect cardiac structure and electrical activity, account for most cases of sudden cardiac death. Of the ICCs, SCD due to Brugada Syndrome is particularly prevalent in SE Asia where it causes early loss of life in young men. While there have been major advances in the treatment of coronary artery disease (CAD), heart failure (HF) and acute MI, it remains very difficult to identify individuals at risk of SCD due to ICCs even when these diseases run in families and/or the mutation is known. This, in large part, relates to our limited understanding of the effects of gene mutations on clinical phenotypes due to variation in mutation penetrance and expressivity. In Singapore, and SE Asia in general, the issue of mutation interpretation is very difficult, if not impossible, as population-specific variant annotation is limited or completely absent for the common ICC genes. In addition, while DNA variants are important other protein biomarkers in the heart and in the vessels may be equally important, and these remain completely unaddressed in all populations.The investigatorswill address these issue in cases and controls using advanced sequencing and informatics approaches and by generating novel antibody libraries using patient samples.

Overall, the research performed in this study will find new ways of diagnosing patients at risk of sudden death both in the hospital environment and also in the general population. This will enable effective screening and stratification of patients at risk of sudden death due to inherited causes or following myocardial infarction.