Profiting from a tight collaboration with the Centre Hospitalier de Luxembourg (CHL), the Institut National de Chirurgie Cardiaque et de Cardiologie Interventionnelle (INCCI), the laboratory of Cardiovascular Research is pursuing its research activities aiming at understanding the mechanisms responsible for the development of heart failure. Keeping in mind the importance of the discovery of new therapeutic and prognostic targets, the activities of the group tackle the fields of translational medicine and systems biology of the disease.
ACTIVITIES
Seven projects were running in the laboratory at the end of 2009, which can be separated in two main research axis: the study of the effects of adenosine on left ventricular remodeling and the development of heart failure (therapeutic approach of the disease), and the identification of new biomarkers of clinical outcome after myocardial infarction (prognostic approach).
1. Adenosine and heart failure
Cardioprotective properties of adenosine are known but its role in the development of heart failure after myocardial infarction is poorly characterized. It appears that adenosine modulates all four main biological processes that set the stage for the development of left ventricular remodeling and heart failure: inflammation, turnover of the extracellular matrix, angiogenesis and cell death. We have designed several research projects that each targets one of these processes. We are now studying the effects of adenosine on the production of collagen by cardiac fibroblasts, on the formation of new blood vessels, or on the recruitment of endothelial progenitors. We are also testing the hypothesis that adenosine may be involved in the protection from heart failure provided by physical activity.
2. Biomarker
Identification of patients at risk of developing heart failure after myocardial infarction is a research priority for our laboratory as heart failure is potentially preventable. Started in 2006, the national myocardial infarction registry now accounts over 500 patients. From this cohort, we have designed several projects to identify potential new biomarkers of heart failure. Our view of the systems biology motivated us to combine several types of data such as transcriptomic biosignatures of blood cells using whole-genome microarrays, proteomic analysis of plasma proteins, single nucleotide polymorphisms, and diverse bioinformatic tools like networks of protein-protein interactions, in the final goal to discover new prognostic biomarkers of heart failure.