Patent Application: US-201314064511-A

Abstract:
methods for determining an increased risk of developing a cardiovascular event excluding stable angina in a subject are disclosed . also disclosed are methods for diagnosing a human subject &# 39 ; s myocardial infarction and / or acute coronary syndrome state or identifying a human subject &# 39 ; s risk of mi and / or acs .

Description:
the terms used in this specification generally have their ordinary meanings in the art , within the context of the invention , and in the specific context where each term is used . certain terms that are used to describe the invention are discussed below , or elsewhere in the specification , to provide additional guidance to the practitioner regarding the description of the invention . for convenience , certain terms may be highlighted , for example using italics and / or quotation marks . the use of highlighting has no influence on the scope and meaning of a term ; the scope and meaning of a term is the same , in the same context , whether or not it is highlighted . it will be appreciated that same thing can be said in more than one way . consequently , alternative language and synonyms may be used for any one or more of the terms discussed herein , nor is any special significance to be placed upon whether or not a term is elaborated or discussed herein . synonyms for certain terms are provided . a recital of one or more synonyms does not exclude the use of other synonyms . the use of examples anywhere in this specification including examples of any terms discussed herein is illustrative only , and in no way limits the scope and meaning of the invention or of any exemplified term . likewise , the invention is not limited to various embodiments given in this specification . unless otherwise defined , all technical and scientific terms used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which this invention pertains . in the case of conflict , the present document , including definitions will control . as used herein , “ around ”, “ about ” or “ approximately ” shall generally mean within 20 percent , preferably within 10 percent , and more preferably within 5 percent of a given value or range . numerical quantities given herein are approximate , meaning that the term “ around ”, “ about ” or “ approximately ” can be inferred if not expressly stated . the terms “ hspb7 ” and “ hspb7 ” are interchangeable , and stand for “ heat shock protein beta - 7 ”. the alternative name is “ cardiovascular heat shock protein ”. the amino acid sequences of heat shock protein beta - 7 ( hspb7 ) of human , mouse and zebra fish species are seq id nos : 1 - 3 , respectively . as used herein , the term “ control ” generally means a reference obtained from a subject without a cardiovascular event . as used herein , the term “ cardiovascular event ” generally refers to one of the following conditions : atherosclerotic vascular disease , myocardial infarction , acute cardiac syndrome ( acs ), stroke , a transient ischemic attack , and critical limb ischemia , but excludes the following conditions or diseases : idiopathic cardiomyopathic conditions , significant valvular heart disease , any malignancy , hematologic or rheumatologic disease , and chronic kidney disease . the invention is related to the discovery that the expression of hspb7 is affected and hspb7 is released into the circulation during myocardial ischemia or after myocardial necrosis . we have investigated the potential association of plasma hspb7 concentration with acs in both an animal model and human subjects . it was found that the plasma concentration of hspb7 was rapidly elevated after myocardial infarction and was an independent predictor of acs . all surgical procedures were performed according to the protocols approved by the institutional animal care and utilization committee , academia sinica . the investigation complied with the guide for the care and use of laboratory animals published by the us national institute of health ( nih publication no . 85 - 23 , revised 1996 ). investigations involving human subjects were conducted in compliance with the principles outlined in the declaration of helsinki . splenocytes from balb / c mice immunized with recombinant gst - hspb7 ( residues 2 - 170 ) protein were fused with p3x myeloma cells to produce hybridomas . hybridomas positive for hspb7 were identified and cloned . ascites fluids were prepared , and purified igg was obtained by protein g chromatography . we obtained 4 independent clones , mab 2 , 3 , 5 , and 6 , that could specifically recognize the recombinant full - length hspb7 protein expressed in human embryonic kidney ( hek )- 293t cells by western blot analysis ( fig1 ). the mabs 2 and 5 were used in following experiments because of their higher specificity . coronary artery ligation was used as an animal model of myocardial infarction as described ( tarnavski o et al . 2004 ). the incision landmark was the left armpit . an oblique 8 - mm incision was made 2 mm away from the left sternal border toward the left armpit . the muscles were separated without damaging blood vessels . after the opening of the chest cavity , the chest retractor was applied for better visualization of the pericardium . the left anterior descending ( lad ) coronary artery could be visualized after opening the pericardium . the lad artery was ligated 1 to 2 mm with a 7 - 0 silk ligature below the tip of the left auricle in its normal position . occlusion was confirmed by the change of color of the myocardium . the chest wall was closed layer by layer . mice in the sham control group underwent the entire procedure except for ligation of coronary artery . blood samples were collected by laparotomy via the inferior vena cava for hspb7 assay at indicated time points after mi . the collection of patient samples was approved by institute of review board of chang - gung memorial hospital , taoyuan , taiwan ( no . 97 - 0606c ) and the institute of biomedical sciences , academia sinica , taipei , taiwan ( no . as - irb01 - 10050 ( 07010 )). adult patients ( age ≧ 18 years old ) presenting to the emergency department with chest pain as the chief complaint were evaluated for eligibility . exclusion criteria included idiopathic cardiomyopathic conditions , significant valvular heart disease , any malignancy , hematologic or rheumatologic disease , and chronic kidney disease ( serum creatinine kinase level ≧ 3 mg / dl ). patients gave their informed consent to be in the study . blood samples were collected for laboratory testing for blood count , lipid profile and levels of creatinine kinase - mb isoform ( ck - mb ), cardiac troponin i ( ctni ), and hspb7 . patients were assigned to the non - cardiac chest pain group , stable angina ( sa ) group , or acs group by american college of cardiology ( acc )/ american heart association ( aha ) guidelines for the management of st - elevated myocardial infarction and unstable angina / non - st - elevated myocardial infarction ( anderson j l et al . 2007 ). heparinized blood samples were centrifuged at 2 , 500 g , and plasma was stored at − 80 ° c . for further analysis . an in - house capture enzyme - linked immunosorbent assay ( elisa ) by using anti - hspb7 mab 2 and 5 was developed as described ( dai d f et al . 2008 ). the minimum detection limit by this method was 2 ng / ml . all assays were performed in batch by another investigator blinded to the clinical diagnoses . the intra - assay and inter - assay covariance of this assay was less than 10 %. demographic data are presented as mean ± sd for continuous variables and number ( percentages ) for binominal variables . analysis of the baseline characteristics of participants followed a case - control design , namely , acs versus control subjects and sa versus control subjects . the chi - square and two - sample t test / mann - whitney rank sum tests were used for analysis . circulating hspb7 levels exhibited a log normal distribution , and therefore data were transformed ( log 10 ) before logistic regression analysis . multiple logistic regression analysis was used to evaluate the association ( s ) between hspb7 concentration and acs or risk factors , with appropriate adjustments for covariates . a two - tailed p & lt ; 0 . 05 was considered statistically significant . analyses involved use of sas v9 . 1 ( sas inst ., cary , n . c ., usa ). to investigate the clinical association of cardiac hspb7 at the protein level , we first generated mabs against human hspb7 protein . spleen cells from balb / c mice immunized with the gst - hspb7 fusion protein containing residues 2 - 170 of human hspb7 were used to prepare the mab with use of a standard hybridoma technique ( see methods ). after screening by elisa and subcloning , 4 specific mabs clones ( 2 , 3 , 5 , and 6 ) against human hspb7 were obtained . the specificity of these mabs was tested by western blot analysis with recombinant human hspb7 or hspb9 protein ( the most closely related shsp family member ) expressed in hek - 293t cells . as shown in fig1 a , these mabs detected only human hspb7 and did not cross - react with human hspb9 . in addition , these mabs also recognized mouse hspb7 protein by western blot or validated its expression in the cardiomyocytes by immunohistochemical analysis ( fig1 b and c ). te - fa chiu et al “ association of plasma concentration of small heat shock protein b7 with acute coronary syndrome ” circ j 2012 ; 76 : 2226 - 2233 , which is incorporated herein by reference in its entireties . we then examined whether myocardial hspb7 can be released into the circulation in a mouse model of mi induced by ligation of the lad coronary artery ( tarnavski o et al . 2004 ). in mi mice , the plasma hspb7 level was significantly elevated as early as 1 h after lad ligation , peaked at 6 h and remained detectable up to 12 h after mi ( fig2 ). plasma hspb7 concentration returned to the minimal detection threshold level at 24 or 48 h after mi . however , in the sham control animals , hspb7 concentration was below or around the minimal detection level at all time points ( fig2 a ). in addition , the expression of myocardial hspb7 protein remains basically unaltered before or after mi as determined by western blotting ( fig2 b ) or immunohistochemical staining for hspb7 ( fig2 c ), respectively . together , these data suggest that increased plasma hspb7 level after mi is likely caused by passive release instead of active synthesis from the myocardium after injury . we further investigated the association of plasma hspb7 levels and acs in 186 patients presenting to the emergency department with chest pain : 77 patients with non - cardiac chest pain ( control ) group , 36 with stable angina ( sa ), and 73 with acs . table 1 lists demographic characteristics of patients . as compared with the non - cardiac chest pain group , patients in the acs and sa groups were of similar age and sex and had similar risk factors , including diabetes mellitus , hypertension , current smoking , and cad family history . however , the detectable rate for hspb7 was much higher ( 62 versus 14 or 22 %, p & lt ; 0 . 001 ; table 1 ) or its plasma concentration was significantly elevated in patients with acs than in those with sa or non - cardiac chest pain ( 5 . 1 versus 2 . 9 ng / ml , p & lt ; 0 . 001 ; fig3 ). the acs and non - cardiac chest pain groups differed in levels of ctni , ck - mb , total cholesterol , low - density lipoprotein ( ldl ) and triglycerols , as well as leukocyte count ( p & lt ; 0 . 001 for all ), whereas the sa and non - cardiac chest pain groups differed in only leukocyte count and ldl level . furthermore , plasma hspb7 levels were positively correlated with the concentrations of markers for myocardial necrosis ( fig4 ): ctni ( r 2 = 0 . 55 , p & lt ; 0 . 0001 ) or ck - mb ( r 2 = 0 . 66 , p & lt ; 0 . 0001 ). table 2 shows plasma hspb7 level among patients with acute coronary syndrome . the number of patients with st - elevation myocardial infarction ( stemi ), non - st - elevation myocardial infarction ( nstemi ), and unstable angina ( ua ) are 25 , 25 , and 23 , respectively ( table 2 ). the plasma hspb7 level is detectable in more the 70 and 50 percent of patients with nstemi and stemi , respectively . hspb7 is detectable in 5 of the 23 patients with ua , as well ( table 2 ). the plasma level of hspb7 correlated with ctni , which is highest in nstemi group ( table 2 ). plasma hspb7 level was detectable as early as 1 to 3 hours after the onset of symptoms in patients with acs ( fig5 ). most patients with a detectable hspb7 concentration experienced a short interval between symptom onset and blood sampling , usually & lt ; 24 h ; however , plasma hspb7 level was not detectable in patients presenting to the emergency department 24 h after the onset of symptoms . table 3 shows the results of logistic regression analyses of risk factors of acute coronary syndrome . compared with traditional risk factors of cad , plasma hspb7 concentration was found a significantly predictor of acs in our patient cohort ( adjusted odds ratio [ or ] 7 . 44 , 95 % confidence interval [ ci ] 1 . 91 to 28 . 93 , p & lt ; 0 . 01 ; table 3 ). current smoking was the only traditional risk factor predicting acs ( adjusted or 3 . 54 , 95 % ci 1 . 49 to 8 . 42 , p & lt ; 0 . 01 ). male sex , age , body mass index , hypertension , and diabetes mellitus were not predictors of acs in our patient cohort . hspb7 level was detectable in some patients in the non - cardiac chest pain group . we examined whether a high hspb7 concentration was associated with increased risk of acs by dividing patients into 2 groups by the 75 th quartile of hspb7 concentration ( 3 . 94 ng / ml ). table 4 shows odds ratios for acute coronary syndrome by levels of hspb7 . patients with acs were more likely than others to have high hspb7 concentration after adjusting for other possible risk factors ( adjusted or 4 . 31 , 95 % ci 1 . 80 - 10 . 33 , p = 0 . 0033 ) because current smoking was the only traditional risk factor associated with acs in our patient group , we then analyzed the cumulative predictive effect of current smoking and hspb7 concentration for acs . table 5 shows cumulative effects of hspb7 level and current smoking on risk of acs . patients with acs were more likely than others to have both risk factors ( adjusted or 20 . 08 , 95 % ci 2 . 21 - 182 . 32 , p = 0 . 0077 , table 5 ). with either risk factor alone , the risk was lower but still significant ( adjusted or 3 . 87 , 95 % ci 1 . 84 - 8 . 1 ). furthermore , patients with acs were more likely than others to exhibit current smoking and high hspb7 level ( adjusted or 18 . 17 , 95 % ci 1 . 96 - 168 . 77 , p = 0 . 0097 ). table 6 shows combined effects of current smoking hspb7 level on risk of acs . hspb7 is an abundant protein selectively expressed in myocardial muscle cells . however , the biological function and clinical association of hspb7 is not clear . in this study , we demonstrated that plasma level of hspb7 is associated with acs in both an animal model and human subjects . because plasma hspb7 concentration was detectable as early as 1 to 3 h after lad ligation in the animal model or after mi in human patients ( fig1 and 4 ) and because we found a positive correction between levels of plasma hspb7 and two cardiac biomarkers of necrosis , ctni and ck - mb ( fig3 ), hspb7 might be rapidly released from cardiomyocytes into the circulation as a result of myocardial necrosis according to the result of western blotting and immunohistochemical staining ( fig2 ). we found that hspb7 level , especially high hspb7 level , is an independent risk factor of acs in patients presenting to the emergency department with acute chest pain . thus , hspb7 not only shows the potential as an early biomarker of mi but also an independent risk factor of acs in patients with acute chest pain . this study establishes the basis for further investigating the role of hspb7 in acs . the current biomarkers used to detect mi are cardiac - specific troponins ( ctni or ctnt ). measurement of ctni or ctnt provides accurate , sensitive , and specific determination of myocardial injury but also some prognostic values and have replaced ck - mb as the preferred marker for detection of myocardial necrosis . however , troponins have some disadvantages . for example , plasma troponin concentration cannot be detected until at least 4 to 6 h after the onset of symptom . thus , patients presenting to the emergency department with typical chest pain must undergo a second troponin measurement ( usually 8 to 12 h after the onset of symptoms ) if the initial measurement showed no elevation . chest pain centers / units as a model of patient care in the emergency department was developed to decrease the cost of patient care and the adverse events . recent multi - center studies showed that high - sensitive ctn assays can improve the early diagnosis of acute mi and risk stratification , regardless of the time of chest pain onset . because plasma hspb7 level is detectable as early as 1 to 3 h after the onset of symptoms ( fig1 and 4 ), it is tempting to speculate that hspb7 level could serve as another early myocardial necrosis biomarker which may further increase diagnostic specificity when combine with sensitive ctn assays . ctn is not elevated solely in the presence of myocardial injury . the plasma level of ctn may be elevated in sepsis , hypovolemia , atrial fibrillation , renal failure , and etc , without thrombotic event . given that hspb7 is only detectable in cardiac muscles , it might be utilized for the diagnosis of acs with better specificity in some conditions mentioned above . we examined plasma hspb7 concentration as a risk factor for acs instead of cad and found that plasma hspb7 concentration and current smoking were two independent risk factors of acs in patients with chest pain . the cumulative effects were also significant . in the emergency department , presenting a risk factor predicting acs is more important than presenting one predicting cad . acs requires emergency treatment including percutaneous coronary intervention , thrombolytic therapy , and intensive unit admission . of note , we found hspb7 levels in some patients with sa , and some acs patients had elevated levels of hspb7 but not ctni . therefore , hspb7 may represent a more sensitive biomarker , at least in a sub - population of patients with low or undetectable ctni levels , in detecting myocardial necrosis . in conclusion , we found that plasma hspb7 levels rise and fall rapidly after the onset of acs in an animal model and clinical human subjects , and such levels may be an early marker of myocardial injury after mi . high hspb7 level was significantly associated with increased risk of acs after adjustment for traditional risk factors . thus , plasma hspb7 level may be an independent risk factor of acs in patients presenting to hospital emergency departments with acute chest pain . the foregoing description of the exemplary embodiments of the invention has been presented only for the purposes of illustration and description and is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention to the precise forms disclosed . many modifications and variations are possible in light of the above teaching . the embodiments and examples were chosen and described in order to explain the principles of the invention and their practical application so as to enable others skilled in the art to utilize the invention and various embodiments and with various modifications as are suited to the particular use contemplated . alternative embodiments will become apparent to those skilled in the art to which the present invention pertains without departing from its spirit and scope . accordingly , the scope of the present invention is defined by the appended claims rather than the foregoing description and the exemplary embodiments described therein . some references , which may include patents , patent applications and various publications , are cited and discussed in the description of this invention . the citation and / or discussion of such references is provided merely to clarify the description of the present invention and is not an admission that any such reference is “ prior art ” to the invention described herein . all references cited and discussed in this specification are incorporated herein by reference in their entireties and to the same extent as if each reference was individually incorporated by reference . anderson j l , adams c d , animan e m , bridges c r , califf r m , casey d e , jr ., et al . acc / aha 2007 guidelines for the management of patients with unstable angina / non st - 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