New markers for cardiovascular disease

Abstract

Meanwhile, in a search for genetic markers for MI, scientists at INSERM Unit 258 (Paris, France) have found a gene that appears to protect against CHD. Stefann-Martin Herrmann and colleagues focused their attention on P-selectin, an adhesion molecule that is expressed at the surface of endothelial cells. P-selectin plays a role in inflammation but is also known to be involved in the initiation of atherosclerotic plaque formation.In a search for P-selectin polymorphisms in 647 MI patients and 758 healthy controls from France and Northern Ireland (the ECTIM study), they identified 13 variants of the P-selectin gene and found that one variant, Pro715, is more common in healthy people than in MI patients [Herrmann, S-M. et al. (1998) Hum. Mol. Genet. 7, 1277–1284]. How this polymorphism alters the properties of P-selectin remains to be established experimentally.Dr Francois Cambien, senior author of the study, explains why, despite these encouraging results, genetic screening for CHD is some way off: `The major markers of heart attack are not genetic ones. There are two important points to consider: first, we may have explored less than one tenth of the genes related to the risk of heart attack and, second, conventional risk factors are related to broad class of diseases whereas genetic risk factors are more likely to be related to sub-categories of disease. Therefore, clinical sub-entities will have to be defined if we really want to investigate the impact of genetic risk factors.'