BIOMARKER PREDICTING CORONARY ARTERY DISEASES

Abstract

Method of determining the health risk for myocardial infartion inpatients subjected to coronary angiography or suspected having an increased cardio-vascular health risk, wherein the concentration of parathyroid hormone is determined in vitro in serum or plasma sample of said patient wherein that the serum or plasma sample is contacted with beads binding oxidized parathyroid hormone and correlating the determined level of parathyroid hormone to the risk for myocardial infarction.

Claims

1. A method of determining the health risk for myocardial infartion in patients subjected to coronary angiography or suspected having an increased cardio-vascular health risk, wherein the concentration of parathyroid hormone is determined in vitro in serum or plasma sample of said patient characterized in that the serum sample is first contacted with beads binding oxidized parathyroid hormone and correlating the determined level of parathyroid hormone to the risk for myocardial infarction.

2. The method as claimed in claim 1 for determining the need of a patient of receiving a medication regulating the level of non-oxidized parathyroid hormone in plasma or serum.

3. The method as claimed in claim 1 for determining the need of patient of receiving a medication reducing the oxidative stress in order to adjust the level of parathyroid hormone secretion into the circulation.

4. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the concentration of parathyroid hormone is determined in vitro in a first sample of serum or plasma of said patient and in a second sample of serum or plasma of said patient after contacting said sample contacted with beads binding oxidized parathyroid hormone, and correlating the determined levels of parathyroid hormone in said first and second sample to the risk of developing a myocardial infarction by said patient.

5. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the amount of parathyroid hormone is determined using a second or third-generation PTH immunoassay prior and after removal of the oxidized parathyroid hormone from said sample.

6. The method as claimed in claim 1, comprising a correlation of the ratio of conventionally determined PTH in serum or plasma and n-oxPTH in serum or plasma to the risk of developing a myocardial infarction.

7. The method as claimed in claim 1, comprising a correlation of the determined amount of oxidized PTH to the risk of developing a myocardial infarction.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0043] In the figures:

[0044] FIG. 1 schematic representation of the measurement of parathyroid hormone (PTH) and the assay principle for measuring non-oxidized PTH (NOX-PTH).

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0045] Chronic kidney disease (CKD) affects 14.5% of the U.S. population with a host of biochemical and clinical abnormalities, including chronic kidney disease-mineral and bone disorder (CKD-MBD) and renal osteodystrophy (ROD). CKD-MBD refers to the clinical syndrome encompassing mineral, bone, and vascular calcification abnormalities that develop as complications of CKD, whereas ROD is used to describe the bone pathology of CKD. The laboratory diagnostic spectrum however needs expansion to include the risks of vascular complication and coronary diseases, and this applies generally to patients with high risk for developing coronary diseases and a myocardial infarction, which includes in particular patients with CKD. Clinical practice guidelines recommend that in patients with CKD serum PTH can be used to evaluate bone disease because markedly high or low values predict underlying bone turnover. There is no parallel biochemical monitoring of the risk of coronary disease available, but the present disclosure describes that a modified measurement as to the parathyroid hormone can be used therefore. Calcification of cardiac tissue can also affect the myocardium, the conduction system, and valves, and thus may cause adverse cardiovascular events, while myocardial infarction is a separate medical entity. Calcification of the aortic and/or mitral valve is quite common in adults receiving maintenance hemodialysis, as is myocardial infarction, with a prevalence of 2.5-5.0-fold greater as compared with non-hemodialysis patients with suspected and documented coronary artery disease. Cardiac calcification may also cause myocardial fibrosis and left ventricular dysfunction, which can culminate in heart failure, or when it involves the electrical conduction system, cardiac arrhythmias may result. Left ventricular hypertrophy has been identified as an independent risk factor for morbidity and mortality in the dialysis population.

[0046] Typical risk factors for myocardial infarction include high blood pressure, smoking, diabetes, obesity, high blood cholesterol, poor diet, and excessive alcohol intake, among others, including male sex, low levels of physical activity, a past family history. Risk factors for myocardial disease are often included in risk factor stratification scores, such as the Framingham risk score. At any given age, men are more at risk than women for the development of cardiovascular disease. Less common causes include stress-related causes such as job stress, which accounts for about 3% of cases, and chronic high stress levels. The blockage of a coronary artery caused by a rupture of an atherosclerotic plaque is usually the underlying mechanism but coronary artery spasms, significant emotional stress, and extreme cold are other mechanisms. A number of tests are useful to help with diagnosis, including electrocardiograms (ECGs), and coronary angiography. An ECG, which is a recording of the heart's electrical activity, may confirm an ST elevation MI (STEMI) if ST elevation is present. Commonly used blood tests include the cardiac protein troponin or the cardiac enzyme CK-MB since myocardial infarction occurs when there is cell death. The latter laboratory methods do not determine the risk of developing a myocardial infarction but serve for diagnosis of an existing myocardial tissue death (infarction) and detect damaged heart muscle (myocardium). Consequently, a biomarker as described is extremely useful for monitoring high risk CKD patients and persons suffering from various forms of stress.

[0047] Secondary hyperparathyroidism is associated with morbidity and mortality in patients with CKD stages 3-5. Observational studies consistently report an increased relative risk of death in CKD stage 5D patients who have measured PTH values at the extremes (less than 2 or greater than 9 times the upper normal limit of the assay). As described in EP 14711939, EP13158401, EP13708713, EP00989994 we have found that these patients tend to have normal hormonal PTH activity but large amounts of oxidized inactive PTH (oxPTH) in the circulation. Conventionally measured intact PTH (iPTH or intact PTH) does not distinguish between hormonal active PTH and oxidized inactive PTH (oxPTH). Progressive increases of iPTH values should be avoided and may point to increased levels of oxPTH and marked changes in iPTH levels should trigger a therapeutic response. The parallel determination of non-oxidized PTH (n-oxPTH) is needed to avoid an inadvertent therapy to the wrong if there are increased levels of iPTH. Monitoring PTH trends is important for the detection and treatment of CKD-MBD. Establishing target ranges is difficult because of the described methodological problems. Conventional 2.sup.nd and 3.sup.rd generation PTH immunoassays differ in their measurement and there is inter-assay and biological variability. Generally, high values of non-oxidized PTH (n-oxPTH) as determined using for example the PARATRIN Prolife serum sample preparation are combined a with reduced mortality whereas conventionally determined high intact PTH (iPTH) levels involve high mortality as those levels often contain a high proportion of oxidized inactive PTH molecules. Clinicians should further be aware that certain populations, such as blacks with CKD, may have generally higher PTH levels. Bone turnover is also lower in blacks compared to whites. In patients with CKD or on hemodialysis, it is reasonable to base the frequency of PTH monitoring on the presence and magnitude of abnormalities and rate of progression of CKD. If PTH changes markedly in either direction within this range, a response is warranted to avoid progression to levels outside the range and a myocardial infarction.

[0048] At this stage, we would like to clarify again the various measurement methods and related problems. PTH is an 84 amino acid peptide that is cleaved both within the parathyroid gland and after secretion into the N-terminal, C-terminal, and mid-region fragments. There has been a progression of increasingly sensitive assays developed over the past few decades. The second generation assay, or intact PTH assay is the type of assay most widely used today while data demonstrates that the intact assay also detects oxidized inactive PTH.

[0049] Matrix-assisted laser desorption ionisation coupled with time-of-flight MS (MALDI-TOF MS) can be used used for peptide identification while sensitivity is still a hurdle. Zhang C-X et al describes in an article entitled Identification of carboxy-terminal peptide fragments of parathyroid hormone in human plasma at low-picomolar levels by mass spectrometry (Anal Chem 2006; 78:1636-43) immunoextracted PTH fragments from healthy controls, patients with chronic renal disease, and from healthy post-menopausal women given recombinant human PTH(1-84). Extracted PTH fragments were analysed by MALDI-TOF MS following fractionation on a capillary LC system; and directly by nano-LC-TOF-MS. Four PTH fragments (PTH34-84, PTH37-84, PTH38-84 and PTH45-84) were identified as the major circulating fragments in samples from renal patients and from healthy volunteers given PTH1-84 (at estimated concentrations from 10 to 100 pmol/L). All of these fragments, with the exception of PTH(45-84), were also found in control samples. In 2010, Lopez M F et al published similar experiments in an article entitled Selected reaction monitoring-mass spectrometric immunoassay responsive to parathyroid hormone and related variants (Clin Chem 2010; 56:281-9049]. However, this time the serum PTH was enriched using an immunoaffinity process by having the antibody (polyclonal goat anti-human PTH39-84) immobilised on micro-columns embedded into pipette tips [mass spectrometric immunoassay (MSIA)]. In samples from patients with renal failure, PTH fragments observed were consistent with those observed by Zhang et al. previously. In addition, novel fragments with truncated N- and C-termini were also observed; these corresponded to PTH28-84, PTH48-84, PTH34-77, PTH37-77 and PTH38-77. Lopez et al. also went on to develop a quantitative assay for these PTH fragments using a triple quadrupole mass spectrometer (see Quantitative LC-MS/MS PTH assays). However, in neither study were larger C-terminal PTH fragments observed, including the widely cited PTH7-84 variant to which the development of third-generation immunoassays can be largely credited. LC-MS analyses could not detect N-truncted PTH in serum of patients and unfortunately, assay kits from different manufacturers measure varying types and amounts of these circulating fragments, leading to inconsistent results. As oxidized PTH1-84 possesses almost identical properties as PTH7-84 on an HLPC column separation it seems likely that the oxidized inactive PTH has been mistaken as N-truncated PTH fragment. Addressing the need for 1-84 PTH standardization, The World Health Organization (WHO) Expert Committee on Biological Standardization (ECBS) reported a preparation of recombinant human 1-84 PTH to serve as the international standard, known as 95/646.23. The recommended target PTH levels of 150-300 pg/mL were arrived at between the late 1980s to the 1990s using the Nichols Allegro Intact PTH assay, which was the reference for PTH measurement until early 2006. But since then, inter-method variability has been shown to produce significantly different concentrations. In addition, most assays have been calibrated against synthetic 1-84 PTH from different sources. But even with that new standard, PTH concentrations varied in wide range and it was recommended that clinical laboratories inform clinicians of the actual assay method in use and report any change in methods, sample source (plasma or serum), and handling specifications to facilitate appropriate interpretation of biochemical data. The use of correction factors to overcome the inter-method variability of PTH measurement cannot represent a solution, while still considered a pragmatic approach, because PTH oxidation differs among patients and with time. The conventional 2.sup.nd and 3.sup.rd generation PTH assays do not take into account the variable proportions of non-oxidized active PTH versus oxidized inactive PTH.

[0050] We have found that 2.sup.nd and 3.sup.rd generation PTH assays such the Nichols Allegro Intact PTH assay, Bayer PTH Advia Centaur, Scantibodies Total Intact PTH, and Roche Elecsys could produce consistent PTH results provided of a pretreatment of the sample using the beads binding and removing oxidized PTH molecules contained in the serum sample. In other words, a double measurement will allow the determination of the individual difference or a ratio of n-oxPTH and iPTH. The result can then be used to determine additionally the relative risk of a myocardial infarction. Thus, oxPTH, n-oxPTH and conventional iPTH can be used as a predictive biomarker for myocardial infarction, if the amount of oxidized PTH or the amount of the non-oxidized PTH is determined in the sample. The resulting biomarker will then describe the risk of a coronary disease or myocardial infarction or a severe cardiovascular event as a diagnostic endpoint.

EXAMPLE

[0051] 1048 Patients undergoing angiography for established or suspected stable CAD were followed up for 6.31.7 years. See Table 1 below for baseline characteristics. The primary study end point, cardiovascular events, was a composite of coronary death, ischemic stroke, myocardial infarction, CABG, PCI, or carotid/peripheral revascularization. N-oxPTH was determined using the method described in FIG. 1, which is available commercially (Immundiagnostik AG, Bensheim, DEParatrin Prolife). The baseline characteristics of the patient have been summarized in Table 1.

TABLE-US-00001 TABLE 1 At baseline Male Female P value N 677 371 Diabetes ADA (n [%]) 192 (28.4) 92 (24.8) NS Smoking history (n [%]) 485 (71.6) 137 (36.9) <0.001 CAD (n [%]) 604 (89.2) 247 (66.6) <0.001 Cerebral insult (n [%]) 30 (4.5) 22 (6.0) NS PAVK (n [%]) 79 (11.8) 28 (7.7) 0.052 Age 63.7 (11.1) 66.7 (9.6) <0.001 BNP, pg/ml 42.7 (145.4) 36.1 (72.8) NS CRP, mg/l 0.42 (0.70) 0.44 (0.74) NS TnI, pg/ml 18.0 (74.1) 64.6 (706.1) NS TG, mg/dl 143.1 (92.2) 131.7 (80.1) 0.047 LDL, mg/dl 124.4 (40.3) 132.5 (42|.4) 0.002 HDL, mg/dl 52.5 (14.3) 63.6 (18.3) <0.001 Vitamin D, nmol/l 43.8 (23.8) 38.8 (20.9) 0.001 N-oxPTH, pg/ml 8.9 (19.3) 11.3 (21.6) 0.072 PTH, pg/ml 41.8 (30.0) 45.8 (30.8) 0.050 FGF-23, pmol/l 1.1 (2.2) 1.3 (2.8) NS Klotho, ng/ml 13.3 (10.8) 13.9 (11.1) NS GFR CKD-EPI, 87.3 (23.2) 80.5 (20.6) <0.001 ml/min/1.73 m2

[0052] Table 2 (overleaf) shows the preliminary results of Cox analyses. The Cox model has been adjusted for age and sex, HR (Hazard Risk) per SD (standard deviation) for metric variables and in decremental order of p value.

[0053] Note that for stroke, CABG, and revascularization (not shown), neither n-oxPTH nor PTH showed significant impact. However, for myocardial infarction N-oxPTH proved to be useful as a predictor and specific biomarker for myocardial infarction, in combination with an 2.sup.nd or 3.sup.rd generation iPTH measurement. The combined results also allow a better monitoring of those patients which are in need of a treatment requiring adjustment of the PTH levels. Cardivascular events and cardiovascular mortality include all type of cardiovascular events, including stroke. Heart includes all type of events, including angiography, stents, etc. This comparison emphasized that NOX-PTH is a strong biomarker and can be used for determining a risk factor for myocardial infarction which has not previously been noted. This in vitro serum marker is further unexpected as there is no apparent physiological correlation or mechanism between PTH in serum and myocardial infarction. And even a better marker than the established BNP and NT-BNP. As PTH is rapidly degraded with minutes after secretion this may further indicate that any one of the PTH fragments must have biological activity which has not been described nor noted. It is further noteworthy that PTH, when determined conventionally, is as such a less potent predictor for myocardial infarction.

[0054] This analysis is further the first report that of cardio-vascular risk prediction on the basis of a PTH measurements. Non-oxidized (n-ox)PTH is further superior to conventional iPTH measurement also in patients without end-stage renal disease or not subject to dialysis treatment. A very stronger predictor of myocardial infarction is the ratio of ox-PTH/n-oxPTH (level of oxidized PTH/non-oxidized PTH) or the absolute amount of oxPTH which indicates that the risk of myocardial infarction is strongly associated to the oxidative stress suffered by the patient. It is well know that CKD suffer from oxidative stress due to inflammation, and even worse when being subjected to hemodialysis. It is very likely that their increased risk for myocardial infarction can be monitored using the disclosed biomarker for myocardial infarction.

TABLE-US-00002 TABLE 2 Cardiovascular Cardiovascular Myocardial Events Mortality Infarction Heart Variable HR P value Variable HR P value Variable P value Variable HR P value CAD 3.0 (1.9-4.8) <0.0001 HbAlc 1.4 (1.2-1.7) 0.0001 N-oxPTH 1.2(1.1-1.3) 0.0001 CAD 3.2 (1.9-5.3) <0.0001 PAD 2.3 (1.7-3.1) <0.0001 Diabetes 2.3 (1.5-3.6) 0-0002 PTH 1.3(1.1-1.5) 0.0003 CRP 1.2 (1.1-1.3) <0.0001 CRP 1.2 (1.1-1.3) <0.0001 GFR 0.6 (0.5-0.8) 0-0002 GFR 0.6(0.5-0.8) 0.0005 HDL 0.7 (0.6-0.8) <0.0001 HDL 0.7 (0.6-0.8) <0.0001 HDL 0.7 (0.5-0.9) 0-002 PAD 2.7(1.5-4.9) 0.0006 PAD 1.9 (1.3-2.6) 0-0003 HbAlc 1.2 (1.1-1.3) 0.0007 VitD 0.6 (0.5-0.9) 0-003 HDL 0.6(0.5-0.9) 0.004 HbAlc 1.2 (1.1-1.3) 0-0007 GFR 0.8 (0.7-0.9) 0.001 FGF-23 1.2 (1.1-1.4) 0-004 Smoking 1.8(1.1-3.2) 0.031 N-oxPTH 1.1 (1.0-1.2) 0.004 Diabetes 1.4 (1.1-1.8) 0.004 CRP 1.2 (1.1-1.4) 0-005 CRP 1.2(1.0-1.3) 0.038 GFR 0.8 (0.7-0.9) 0.005 TG 1.2 (1.0-1.3) 0.005 BNP 1.1 (1.0-1.2) 0-009 VitD 0.7(0.6-1.0) 0.056 VitD 0.8 (0.7-0.9) 0.010 BNP 1.1 (1.0-1.2) 0.005 PAD 1.9 (1.1-3.4) 0-019 Klotho 0.9(0.7-1.2) 0.579 Diabetes 1.4 (1.1-1.8) 0.010 VitD 0.8 (0.7-0.9) 0.008 N-oxPTH 1.1 (0.9-1.2) 0.320 FGF-23 1.0(0.6-1.4) 0.827 TG 1.2 (1.0-1.3) 0.018 Smoking 1.4 (1.1-1.9) 0.010 Klotho 1.1 (0.8-1.3) 0.600 PTH 1.1 (1.0-1.3) 0.042 N-oxPTH 1.1 (1.0-1.2) 0.018 PTH 1.0 (0.8-1.3) 0.824 FGF-23 1.0 (0.6-1.4) 0.062 Tnl 1.1. (1.0-1.2) 0.030 Klotho 1.0 (0.8-1.1) 0.617 PTH 1.1 (0.9-1.2) 0.096 FGF-23 1.1 (0.9-1.2) 0.115 Klotho 0.9 (0.8-1.1) 0.335