Patent Application: US-42965603-A

Abstract:
the present invention is directed toward identification of cardioprotective gene programs in the neonatal heart . specifically , the newborn heart or alternatively fetal heart has been recognized as having an increased resistance to pathophysiological forms of stress , e . g . hypoxic stress . the pattern of gene expression in immature heart subject to naturally occurring hemodynamic and hypoxic stress , e . g . that associated with obstructive congenital heart disease , is herein revealed by differential gene profiling ; and the induction of a cardioprotective gene pattern , and particularly useful subsets thereof , in the heart chronically adapted to stress is confirmed . thus , the chronically stressed immature heart provides a novel biosynthetic platform for cardioprotective gene expression , useful as a basis for the development of diagnostic and therapeutic modalities .

Description:
the above - stated and other related objectives are realized by providing ( 1 ) a unique combination of targets which comprise the protective response , in the form of a particular gene expression profile or gene network ( inclusive of a combination of genes which may be both up - and down - regulated ), constitute , a gene network ; and ( 2 ) by the recognition of various utilities , either individually , or in particular combinations , which demonstrate enhanced combinatorial effects in the identified gene activation network . a ) anti - hypertrophy effects — relating to cardiac muscle cells . regression of intrinsic cardiac hypertrophy is therapeutically useful . c ) anti - contractility effects — down - regulation of intrinsic cardiac contractility is therapeutically useful in certain pathological conditions as a means to reduce energy and / or oxygen demands in the stressed or failing heart . d ) anti - proliferative effects — relating to vascular smooth muscle cells ( vsmc ). prevention of vsmc proliferation would be useful in ameliorating coronary occlusive disorders . more generally , anti - growth properties may be useful as cancer treatment . e ) wound healing — identified gene network promotes favorable wound healing and remodeling in response to stress . with regard to hypertrophic heart disease , most forms of advanced heart disease , regardless of causation , feature hypertrophy of the constituent cardiomyocytes and gross enlargement of the heart . while in the early stages this process is considered beneficial by virtue of increasing cardiac output , however , continued hypertrophic stress eventually leads to decompensated heart failure . although the factors that govern this transition from physiological to pathological hypertrophy are not well characterized , treatment directed to limiting the hypertrophic response would be beneficial . the stressed newborn heart reveals a novel functional module predicted to resist excessive hypertrophy , and it is within the purview of the present invention to utilize the cardioprotective gene program defined therein as an early diagnostic tool for evidencing and characterizing the presence of early , and essentially asymptomatic hypertrophic heart disease . thus , the present invention is further directed toward a process for diagnosing hypertrophic heart disease in a patient comprising the steps of ( 1 ) obtaining a characteristic differentially expressed cardiac nucleic acid sequence profile from said patient ; and ( 2 ) comparing said profile to the immature heart cardioprotective gene network as herein set forth . the presence of nucleic acid sequences in said patient &# 39 ; s characteristic profile determined to have anti - hypertrophic properties is deemed evidentiary of physiologic compensation of hypertrophic heart disease . myocardial samples were taken in 24 patients operated on for obstructive heart lesions , ranging in age from 6 days to 180 months . the samples were acquired immediately after aortic occlusion and stored in liquid nitrogen . the patients were divided into 2 groups . group i consisted of 7 patients ( 2 females , 5 males ) age ranged from 5 days to 66 days { mean 30 days }; weight ranged from 2 . 5 kg to 4 . 9 kg { mean 3 . 6 kg }. the diagnosis included tetralogy of fallot ( tf ) ( n = 4 ), complex transposition ( n = 2 ), and truncus arteriosus ( n = 1 ). group ii consisted of 17 patients ( 6 females , 11 males ) age ranged from 4 months to 180 months { mean 33 . 5 months }; weight ranged from 5 . 18 kg to 33 . 5 kg , { mean 11 . 3 kg }. the diagnoses in group ii included tf with ( n = 1 ) or without ( n = 16 ) pulmonary atresia . one patient underwent rv to pulmonary conduit change subsequent to repair of ventricular septal defect and subaortic stenosis by a damus - kaye - stansel procedure . in accordance with this invention , immature heart tissue is understood to mean myocardial samples taken from patients within the age groupings as set forth above , as well as fetal myocardial tissue . in accordance with this invention , the terms cardioprotective gene network , cardioprotective gene pattern , cardioprotective gene profile , and cardioprotective gene program are understood to mean a combination of nucleic acid sequences which are up - regulated and down - regulated in neonatal or fetal heart tissue as a result of naturally occurring disease states , e . g . naturally occurring and chronic hemodynamic and / or hypoxic stress , such as that induced by obstructive congenital heart disease . in accordance with the present invention “ characteristic differentially expressed cardiac nucleic acid sequencing profile ” refers to the difference in nucleic acid expression based on analysis of the patient myocardial sample , with direct comparison to normal values determined for a specific laboratory , or in comparison to corresponding data obtained from the same patient at an earlier time point in the clinical course of his disease . such comparisons are facilitated by the method used in the current invention in which the transcript intensity corresponding to each probe on the array was compared to that corresponding probe in universal human rna reference sample . other comparisons which may be informative would include those obtained through in silico database searches consisting of cardiac disease - specific transcriptional profiles . in accordance with the present invention “ evident functional clusters ” includes both upregulated and downregulated nucleic acids sequences evidencing cytoprotective , anti - hypertrophic , anti - fibrotic , and other clusters predicted to promote vasodilatation and favorable extra - cellular matrix remodeling and wound healing . with reference to fig1 the figure displays a hierarchical clustering of gene expression data of the 24 patients operated upon for rvot obstruction . each row represents a separate cdna clone on the microarray and each column an mrna sample from a separate patient . patient mrna samples are separated in 2 groups as indicated on the top . the results presented represent the ratio of hybridization of fluorescent cdna probes prepared from each patient mrna sample to a reference mrna sample , and are a measure of gene - specific expression levels . red color indicates higher expression , and green color indicates lower expression , relative to the reference sample . total rna was isolated from tissue samples utilizing trizol reagent according to the protocol outlined by the manufacturer ( gibco / brl ). briefly , frozen tissues were powdered using a mortar and pestle , cooled in liquid nitrogen then further manually homogenized in a microtube using disposable homogenizers in the presence of the trizol reagent . rna concentrations were determined by spectrophotometric analysis at 260 nm and quality was confirmed by running a 50 - 250 ng aliquot on the agilent 2100 bioanalyzer . all samples were stored at − 70 ° c . until analyzed . universal human reference rna ( stratagene ) was used as the reference sample for all hybridizations . microarrays were manufactured at the university of toronto microarray centre ( toronto , canada ) utilizing cdnas generated from 19 , 000 individual cdnas from genome systems ( st . louis , mo ., usa ). the cdna inserts were pcr amplified from the pt7t3d - pac vectors in 96 well format . purification of the ests was performed using telechem filter plates ( sunnyvale , calif ., usa ) using a beckman biomek 2000 robotic workstation . after purification , pcr products were - rearrayed into 384 polypropylene collection plates from whatmann polyfiltronics inc . ( rockland , mass ., usa ). the amplified purified cdnas were spotted using the sddc - 2 robotic arrayer from virtec engineering services incorporated ( vesi , toronto , canada ). the cdnas were arrayed using 32 stealth chipmaker 3 microspotting pins from telechem international ( sunnyvale , calif .) onto corning cmt - gaps ™ slides ( corning , n . y ., usa ). each of the 32 pins prepared a 25 row , 24 column grid . the resultant pattern is 32 grids , in an 8 × 4 pattern , each with 600 spots . each individual spot measures approximately 120 μm in diameter . the spots were printed at a centre - to - centre distance of 170 μm . names and identifications of all nucleic acid sequences , inclusive of est &# 39 ; s which are part of the instantly disclosed cardioprotective gene network were deduced via the unigene data bank , and each of the individual unigene cluster id reports and all related citations and sequence listings associated therewith are herein incorporated by reference , as if they were a part of the original specification . total rna ( 10 μg ) from either the patient or reference sample was added to a reaction mixture containing the following : 8 μl 5 × first strand buffer ( invitrogen , burlington , canada ), 1 . 5 μl anct primer ( t 20 vn , cortec , kingston , canada ), 3 μl of a 7 mm dntp mix ( final concentration of 500 μm datp , attp and dgtp each ), 50 μm dctp , 25 μm cyanine3 - dctp or cyanine5 - dctp ( pe / nen , usa ), 10 mm dtt . final reaction volumes were brought up to 40 μl with water and primer annealing was initiated by heating the reaction mix to 65 ° c . for 5 minutes then 42 ° c . for 5 minutes . reactions were initiated by the addition of 2 μl of superscript ii rt ( 200 units / μl , invitrogen , burlington , canada ) and allowed to proceed for 2 hours at 42 ° c . reactions were then terminated by the addition of 5 μl of 50 mm edta ( ph8 . 0 ). rna was degraded with the addition of 2 μl of 10 n naoh and heating to 65 ° c . for 20 minutes . after rna degradation , samples were neutralized by adding 5 μl of 5 m acetic acid to the reaction volume . samples were then combined ( patient and reference pairs ) and added to 400 μl of sterile water followed by application to pcr spin columns ( millipore , canada ). samples were centrifuged at 1000 × g for 15 minutes at room temperature . labeled sample was recovered by adding 5 μl of water to the membrane , inverted and spun at 1000 × g for 2 minutes . samples were then used immediately for hybridization . resuspended samples were added to a hybridization mixture containing 80 μl dig easyhyb ( roche , mississauga , canada ), 4 μl yeast trna ( 10 μg / μl ), and 4 μl salmon sperm dna ( 10 μg / μl , sigma , mississauga , canada ). samples were heated to 65 ° c . for 2 minutes , cooled briefly and centrifuged to bring down any condensate that may have accumulated during heating . the entire volume was applied to the microarray and placed in a sealed , humidified hybridization chamber and incubated over night at 37 ° c . slides were then washed consecutively in 1 × ssc , 0 . 1 % sds for 3 × 10 minutes at 50 ° c . a final rinse was carried out at room temperature in 0 . 1 × ssc for 5 minutes and the slides were then centrifuged for 5 minutes at 500 rpm to dry . slides were scanned on a scanning laser fluorescence confocal microscope ( scanarray 4000xl , perkin elmer , mass ., usa ). individual 16 - bit tiff images were obtained by scanning for each of the two fluors . an overlay image of the two images was created and quantified utilizing the quantarray ( v2 . 1 ) program ( perkin elmer , mass ., usa ). intensity values for each spot were normalized and ratios calculated resulting in a value of patient sample / reference . individual spots had to pass a number of quality criteria to be included in the data analysis , including a minimum spot / local background intensity ≧ 1 , a minimum spot / mean background intensity ≧ 1 , and a minimum spot intensity of 100 . data were stored in and analyzed with the genetraffic microarray database and analysis system ( iobion informatics , la jolla , usa ), as well as the significance analysis for microarrays ( sam ) program . scanned 16 - bit tiff images representing each hybridized microarray slide and the associated quantification data files were entered into the database with a complete annotation of the experiments based on the current miame standards for microarray experiments . each hybridization data set was normalized using lowess subarray normalization . lowess normalization uses a local weighted smoother to generate an intensity dependent normalization function . in subarray normalization each subarray or grid is normalized individually to correct for variation in local mean signal intensities across the surface of the array ii . the resultant normalized log2 patient / sample intensity ratios were used for statistical analysis . a repeated permutation procedure was performed to ascertain potential statistical differences in gene expression between the two age groups i . the median false discovery rate , based on analysis of permuted data sets , was less than 1 . 0 % and only genes with a minimum 2 fold change in expression were selected . results from the sam analysis were visualized as hierarchical clusters . independent confirmation of increased transcription levels was performed on 4 randomly selected genes showing increased neonatal expression using real - time quantitative polymerase chain reaction ( qpcr ). primers were constructed against the 3 ′ ends of fibroblastic growth factor 1 ( acidic ), hdgf , syntenin , and egr - 1 and amplicon abundance determined in real - time by sybr green dye ( applied biosystems ) fluorescence measurement during the logarithmic phase and normalized to that of a control gene , cyclophilin . fold changes for the cyclophilin - normalized value of each transcript were determined as a ratio of sample patient to that of the universal human reference rna . multiple regression analysis was performed to compare intergroup differences in transcript fold changes determined by microarray analysis versus qpcr for each of the selected genes . all patients survived the surgical procedure and were discharged from hospital . one neonate with taussig - bing anomaly plus atrioventricular septal defect required postoperative extra - corporeal membrane oxygenation . there were no significant differences in pre - operative arterial saturation between the two age groups ( group i : 79 . 85 + 12 . 5 vs group ii : 87 . 24 + 12 . 9 ; p = 0 . 21 ). there were no differences in preoperative central venous pressure ( group i : 7 . 2 + 2 . 3 vs group ii : 7 . 4 + 2 . 6 ; p = 0 . 85 ) or postoperative inotropic support ( dopamine : group i mean 4 . 5 + 2 . 74 vs 4 . 5 + 3 . 01 ; p = 1 . 0 ; milrinone : group i : 0 . 53 + 0 . 29 vs group ii : 0 . 26 + 0 . 31 ; p = 0 . 11 ). in accordance with fig2 a table of differentially expressed genes is shown . genes with higher expression levels in group i ( neonatal ) are indicated by fold change & gt ; 1 ; genes with lower expression levels in group i ( neonatal ) are indicated by fold change & lt ; 1 . red typeface , literature - validated cardioprotective gene elements ; blue typeface , gene elements with predicted anti - hypertrophic properties ; black typeface , gene elements with unprecedented or unanticipated cardiovascular effects . note that with reference to fig2 for a confirmed clone id indicated “ n / a ”, this means the clone used links to a confirmed unigene cluster id ; the sequence similarity among clone ids does not permit identification of the specific clone id which links to the unigene cluster id . significant genes were searched using the stanford online universal resource for clones and ests ( source ), which compiles information from several publicly accessible databases , including unigene , dbest , swiss - prot , genemap99 , rhdb , genecards and locuslink . several genes are literature - validated { pub med january 2003 } as having a protective effect against experimentally - induced myocardial ischemic / reperfusion injury , including atrial natriuretic polypeptide ( anp ), myosin light chains 4 ( myl4 ) and 2a ( myl2a ), hepatoma - derived growth factor ( hdgf ), and toll - interleukin 1 receptor ( tir ) ( highlighted red in fig2 ). several additional genes have documented anti - growth properties and may be speculated to resist cardiac hypertrophy and promote vasodilatation , including the small gtpase rap 1 , the transcriptional repressor zinc finger protein 7 , protein phosphatase 2 ( ppp2a ), ubiquitin specific protease 15 , and egr - 1 . the finding of decreased transcript expression of fibroblastic growth factor 1 ( acidic ) ( highlighted blue in fig2 } would be predicted to confer additional net anti - proliferative effects . several genes have been previously designated as “ fetal ” genes , including anp , hdgf , and keratin , hair , basic , 5 . the remaining genes are unprecedented in terms of predicted cardiovascular effects ( black typeface in fig2 ). atrial natriuretic polypeptide ( anp ) the effects of anp are mediated through binding to the a - type natriuretic peptide receptor which activates guanyl cyclase , leading to the formation of cgmp iii , iv . upregulation of anp expression occurs in all four cardiac chambers in response to acute and chronic hypoxic stress v , vi , vii , implying that the anp may represent an hypoxia - inducible gene per se , the regulation of which can occur independently of changes in pulmonary artery pressure and ventricular hypertrophy . the fact that there were no significant differences in saturation levels between the 2 age groups argues that the increased anp response observed neonatally reflects an age - dependent enhancement to hypoxic signaling rather than a response commensurate with a greater degree of hypoxia . similarly , the lack of intergroup differences in cvp rules out stretch - induced anp activation as an explanation for differential expression . the direct effect of anp on myocardial ischemia / reperfusion injury is unknown ; however , the fact that anp elevates cgmp levels , inhibits pro - apoptotic p38 mapk activation , and antagonizes tumor necrosis factor - α - induced changes in endothelial cell cytoskeleton and prevents macromolecule permeability changes viii , is highly suggestive of a novel cytoprotective effect in this context . recombinant anp peptide has been shown to potentiate myocardial ischemic preconditioning through a nitric oxide - dependent mechanism ix . additional cytoprotective effects may accrue from upregulation of toll - interleukin 1 receptor , x , attributable to activation of ischemic preconditioning and anti - apoptotic signaling pathways , respectively . it is unknown as to whether anp gene induction in the heart confers a direct cytoprotective effect against excessive , or pathological , hypertrophic or hypoxic stimuli , independently of its vasoreactive and natriuretic properties . consistent with this prediction , however , is the observation that exogenous or endogenous anp peptide suppressively regulates the cardiac hypertrophic response in an autocrine / parcrine manner by increasing myocyte cgmp levels in neonatal rat cardiomyocytes in vitro xii , and that transgenic mice over expressing anp have lower heart weights under normoxic conditions and an attenuated right ventricular hypertrophic response to hypoxia - induced pulmonary hypertension xiii . a decline in ventricular anp gene transcription normally occurs postnatally concurrently with a switch from right to a left ventricular dominant circulation xiv , xv , xvi , providing an explanation for neonatal expression of this transcript in the presence of rvot obstruction . however , the fact that expression levels of two other hypertrophy - associated genes , gene β - myosin heavy chain and endothelin - 1 , were not found to be differentially expressed in our study , argues that neonatal upregulation of anp is functionally important and not simply a marker of hypertrophic stress . while not wishing to be bound to any particular theory , we speculate that anp gene activation in the context of neonatal obstructive heart disease may serve to mitigate excessive hypertrophic signaling and protect against the transition from physiological to pathological hypertrophy . protein phosphatase 2a ( pp2a ) transgenic mice over - expressing protein phosphatase 2a exhibit reduced cardiac contractility and progressive ventricular dilatation , an effect which may serve to mitigate the concentric hypertrophic response inherent in neonatal tfxvii , and which may be attributable to pp2a - mediated antagonism to calcium calmodulin - dependent protein kinase activity xviii . in vascular smooth muscle cells pp2a inhibits platelet - derived growth factor bb - mediated phosphorylation of bad and forkhead transcription factor fkhr - l1 , and this effect correlates with increased apoptosis xix . the anti - hypertrophic signaling described for this phosphatase may thus be predicted to complement favorable cardiac vascular remodeling attributable to increased anp . early growth response 1 ( egr - 1 ) is a zinc finger transcription factor which exerts opposing effects depending on the latency of the measured response and the contextual pattern of co - regulated gene expression . for example , growth factors and cytokines including platelet - derived growth factor , angiotensin ii , tumor necrosis factor - α ( tnf - α ) and interleukin - 1β increase egr - 1 message within 15 minutes xx , which , in turn , activates transcription of several genes implicated in the pathogenesis of vascular diseases , including tnf - α xxi , pgdf xxii , interleukin - 2 xxi , and fibroblastic growth factor ( fgf ) xxiii , producing an positive amplification loop favoring smooth muscle cell proliferation . conversely , egr - 1 exerts a counter - regulatory effect through a sustainable transactivation of peroxisome proliferator - activated receptor γ1 ( ppar γ1 ), itself a ligand - activated nuclear transcription factor which potently suppresses growth factor - and cytokine - mediated signaling in vascular smooth muscle xxiv , xx , possibly accounting for the reduced fgf message observed in the neonatal group . thus , in addition to mitigation of hypertrophic cardiomyocyte signaling , coordinated expression of anp , egr - 1 and protein phosphatase 2a would be predicted to favor vascular smooth muscle regression promoting coronary vasodilatation and having the effect of augmenting oxygen delivery to hypertrophic , hypoxically perfused myocardium . although not literature - validated as cardiac ‘ targets ’, increased neonatal expression of the small gtpase rap 1 , which inhibits the extracellular signal - related kinase ( erk ) signaling cascade xxv , and the transcriptional repressor , zinc finger protein 7 xxvi , could plausibly further limit hypertrophic responses in the hemodynamically stressed heart . several genes differentially expressed in the neonatal group conceivably augment the capacity for matrix remodeling and cellular regeneration , including the re - expression , or more likely , persistence , of ‘ fetal ’ genes , implying parallels between physiological fetal and stress - induced tissue remodeling . hgdf is a nuclear - targeted growth factor conspicuously expressed in embryonic ventricular myocytes , endocardium , and cells of the ventricular outflow tract , implying a role in cardiovascular growth and differentiation xxviii . although not specified as a fetal gene , egr - 1 also has wound healing properties by virtue of capacity to stimulate angiogenesis xxix and endothelial production of membrane type 1 matrix metalloproteinase xxx . egr - 1 - mediated upregulation of plasminogen activator inhibitor - 1 ( also known as serpine - 1 ) xxxi may serve an important adaptive function , increasing the fibrin stroma on which neoangiogenesis and tissue repair may take place xxxii . an unexpected finding of global gene analysis of heart tissue in this study was the evidence for anti - growth properties of several transcripts , including tumor suppressor genes egr - 1 , ubiquitin specific protease 15 , the transcriptional repressor zinc finger protein 7 , in concert with reduced levels of fgf 1 mrna . this anti - growth program is thematically consistent with a greater compensatory reaction to hyperproliferative signals in the immature heart , which may serve to protect against the development of pathological interstitial fibrosis . intergroup differences in 4 randomly selected transcripts levels determined by microarray analysis were highly correlated with those determined by qpcr : multiple r 2 value = 0 . 998 ; p = 0 . 001 . neither the cardioprotective gene expression profile , per se , nor the subsets identified as having particular utilities have been heretofore recognized or suggested . of the estimated 32 , 000 to 38 , 000 genes encoded by the human genome , approximately 20 , 000 to 25 , 000 are thought to be expressed in the cardiovascular system . the combinatorial pattern of gene expression in the heart serves to increase the repertoire of responses to pathological stress , and it is intuitively logical that the capacity for such adaptive responses is inversely related to the fetal - neonatal - adult development gradient . the results of the current microarray - based gene expression profiling study confirm the existence of a protective re - programming response which is most evident in neonatal myocardium subject to the hemodynamic and metabolic stress imposed by structural congenital heart disease . within the overall disease - specific expression profiles , additional subsets have also been implicated which define novel molecular targets in the pathogenesis of human cardiovascular disease , including cardiac hypertrophy xxxiii , dilated cardiomyopathy ( dcm ) xxxiv , and the clinical response to . β - blockade in patients with dcm xxxv . the molecular signatures identified using this approach are typically construed as being either mechanistically relevant to the disease pathogenesis , or alternatively , as markers of disease progression . in contrast , it has been determined by the present inventors , that this approach can be used to identify endogenous patterns of gene expression which are activated in response to the primary disease - causing pathway , and have the effect of generating a counteracting , and highly adaptive pattern of gene activation , which serve to suppress aberrant disease - related molecular pathways . the age - related differential transcript profile observed in our study included upregulation of the majority ( 42 / 50 ) of significant genes , consistent with the idea of a more robust response in the neonatal heart . the literature - validated function of the genes implicated in this response suggested a clustering of overlapping ‘ themes ’ or sub - profiles relating to cytoprotection , anti - hypertrophic remodeling , and re - expression of fetal genes . all patents and publications are herein incorporated by reference to the same extent as if each individual publication was specifically and individually indicated to be incorporated by reference . it is to be understood that while a certain form of the invention is illustrated , it is not to be limited to the specific form or arrangement herein described and shown . it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various changes may be made without departing from the scope of the invention and the invention is not to be considered limited to what is shown and described in the specification and drawings / figures . one skilled in the art will readily appreciate that the present invention is well adapted to carry out the objectives and obtain the ends and advantages mentioned , as well as those - inherent therein . the embodiments , methods , procedures and techniques described herein are presently representative of the preferred embodiments , are intended to be exemplary and are not intended as limitations on the scope . changes therein and other uses will occur to those skilled in the art which are encompassed within the spirit of the invention and are defined by the scope of the appended claims . although the invention has been described in connection with specific preferred embodiments , it should be understood that the invention as claimed should not be unduly limited to such specific embodiments . indeed , various modifications of the described modes for carrying out the invention which are obvious to those skilled in the art are intended to be within the scope of the following claims . 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