Circulating Biomarker for Early Detection of Post-Operative Cardiac Arrhythmias

Summary

The Cai group at UCLA has found that nitric oxide can be used as a non-invasive biomarker to predict a patient’s risk of post-operative atrial fibrillation and other arrhythmic phenotypes.

Background

Cardiac arrhythmias, such as atrial fibrillation, affect over 30% of patients who undergo cardiac procedures. These events are highly associated with morbidity and mortality in cardiac surgery patients. A robust biomarker that predicts the risk of atrial fibrillation and other arrhythmias would greatly improve the rate of operation-related complications after cardiac surgeries.

Innovation

Dr. Hua Cai and his colleagues have found that decreased levels of nitric oxide in a patient’s blood may act as a novel biomarker to predict a patient’s risk for atrial fibrillation. Their previous work shows that nitric oxide is a robust inhibitor of NOX4, a molecule that increases the inflammation during cardiopulmonary bypass, which may escalate the risk of atrial fibrillation. Nitric oxide is a circulating biomarker, and can therefore be detected noninvasively in peripheral blood samples.

Applications

• Detect a patient’s risk of cardiac arrhythmias before serious, life-threatening damage occurs
• Decrease morbidity and mortality that arise from complications associated with cardiac surgery

Advantages

• Non-invasive screening
• Early detection of post-operative complications
• Decreased morbidity and mortality in cardiac surgery patients

State Of Development

Dr. Cai and colleagues have that a significant reduction in median serum nitric oxide levels was observed after cardiac surgery with cardiopulmonary bypass in a large cohort of patients. Patients with larger decreases in nitric oxide levels were more likely to develop atrial fibrillation.

Patent Status

Related Materials

• Zhang J, Youn JY, Kim AY, et al. NOX4-Dependent Hydrogen Peroxide Overproduction in Human Atrial Fibrillation and HL-1 Atrial Cells: Relationship to Hypertension. Front Physiol. 2012;3:140.
• Siu KL, Lotz C, Ping P, Cai H. Netrin-1 abrogates ischemia/reperfusion-induced cardiac mitochondrial dysfunction via nitric oxide-dependent attenuation of NOX4 activation and recoupling of NOS. J Mol Cell Cardiol. 2015;78:174-85.