Protein Levels In The Blood Linked To Heart Disease, Brain Damage

A new study has recently revealed that the levels of protein in the heart may be linked to heart disease and early stage of brain damage.

According to Indian Express, heart and brain disease have caused the society to experience a major burden, and the incidence is expected to significantly rise due to the rapidly aging population. The study, published in the Journal of Radiology, has said that a substance or marker in the blood is indicative of sub-clinical heart disease and brain diseases, like stroke and/or dementia, and could speed up initiation of treatments and lifestyle changes, potentially slowing or even reversing the disease's course.

A substance, or marker, in the blood indicative of subclinical heart disease and brain diseases like stroke and dementia could speed the initiation of treatments and lifestyle changes, potentially slowing or even reversing the disease's course.

N-terminal Pro-B-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) is a protein released into the blood in response to cardiac wall stress. The researchers claim that blood serum levels of NT-proBNP increase when heart failure worsens and significantly decreases when it gets better.

Although past studies have shown a connection between heart disease and brain disease, experts do not know a lot about the relationship between NT-proBNP and the entire spectrum of imaging markers of subclinical brain damage, like brain volume and white matter integrity.

The study, led by researchers from the Netherlands, recently investigated the association in 2,397 community-dwelling middle-aged and elderly people who are not suffering from dementia without a clinical diagnosis of heart disease.

The participants in the study were drawn from the landmark Rotterdam Study, an ongoing, population-based study of more than 10,000 people from a suburb of Rotterdam, the Netherlands. The researchers compared serum levels of NT-proBNP with MRI findings and discovered a clear association between higher NT-proBNP levels and brain damage, Medical Xpress reported.

"We found that higher serum levels of NT-proBNP were associated with smaller brain volumes, in particular with smaller gray matter volume, and with poorer organization of the brain's white matter," said Meike W. Vernooij, M.D., Ph.D., the study's lead author and a neuroradiologist at Erasmus MC University Medical Center in Rotterdam.

The findings reveal a close link between the heart and brain even in apparently healthy individuals, Dr. Vernooij said. He also said that there can be several explanations to explain the association between cardiac dysfunction and subclinical brain damage.

One would be that the decrease in blood flow could later lead to cerebral microvascular damage or problems in the function of the blood-brain barrier, which is a network of blood vessels that allow important nutrients into the brain while blocking potentially harmful substances. Inflammatory factors associated with cardiac stress could also harm the barrier, leading to increased permeability and damage to the brain.

It is also important to note that although NT-proBNP is currently used in a clinical setting to rule out heart failure, it is still too early to predict if it can play a similar role for subclinical brain damage, as the new study only looked at people at one point in time.

"We cannot rule out that the observed subclinical brain damage led to increased levels of NT-proBNP," Dr. Vernooij said. "However, from a biological perspective, and based on animal studies, it is more likely that cardiac dysfunction affects brain changes rather than vice versa."

The researchers also said that there is a still a need for further research, including follow-up brain MRI studies and measurements of NT-proBNP to clarify the relationship between cardiac dysfunction and subclinical brain disease.