A lot of clinical studies allow predicting changes in health status and suggesting what awaits a person in the future. But not so long ago, scientists from Johns Hopkins University released new data, according to which information encrypted in mitochondria can provide information about how great a person's risk of dying from heart disease is.
The research results are published in JAMA Cardiology and European Heart Journal. The developed test can not only predict whether a person will have sudden cardiac death, but also prevent it. For example, give the opportunity to start treatment in advance. According to the study, scientists have found that the lower the number of copies of mitochondrial DNA in a person, the higher the risk of dying from heart disease.
The study was led by Dr. Dan Eckring. The scientist and his team collected genetic data from nearly 22,000 patients, who measured the number of copies of mitochondrial DNA and compared them with the number of nuclear DNA. All data was entered into the cardiology calculator, which is now the "gold standard" in the diagnosis of heart disease. It takes into account a lot of criteria: from blood pressure to cholesterol levels and smoking history to heart rate.
The addition of a new DNA test allowed six people who were not at risk to be predicted to have a heart attack over the next 5 years. And 139 people were able to cancel, without harm to their health, preventive treatment with statins, which was prescribed. The second study only confirmed the results: scientists measured the number of copies of mitochondrial DNA in 11,093 patients and found that within 20 years, 361 people in whom this figure was lowered, died from sudden cardiac arrest.
“We believe mitochondrial DNA copy number is a new marker for risk factors for cardiovascular disease. Their number may indicate an urgent need to start treatment. With our method, we can create a test that will identify people at risk of sudden cardiac death in the near future."
Vladimir Kuznetsov