Scientists are trying to find new ‘red flags’ in the blood for heart disease

EVERYONE knows high cholesterol increases the risk of heart disease, but scientists believe there are more circulating fats linked to the country’s biggest killer.

MELBOURNE scientists are searching for tiny warning signs in our blood that drive up the risk of heart disease.

Their ambitious aim is to develop tests to diagnose and treat the disease that kills one Australian every 12 minutes.

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High cholesterol levels are known to increase the risk of heart disease, Professor Peter Meikle from the Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute said.

Prof Meikle and colleagues in the United States will analyse the blood and genes of thousands of people in the hope of finding new “red flags” for the country’s biggest killer.

Professor Peter Meikle said they will use a mass spectrometry — technology that can sort and weigh lipids — to analyse samples sent from America to Australia.

“With the new technology that we have, we can now measure 650 lipid species and start to see many are also associated with cardiovascular outcomes, like a heart attack or stroke,” Prof Meikle said.

They want to better understand the metabolic pathways of different lipids to work out how they contribute to heart disease.

Professor Peter Meikle of the Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute. Picture: Ian Currie

“If we can identify the pathways and the enzymes controlling them then we have the potential to intervene with new therapeutic strategies,” Prof Meikle said.

“In the same way that statins target cholesterol by interfering with one of the enzymes that synthesises it.”

A new $1.3 million grant over four years from the National Institutes of Health in the US will also allow them to look at the genes of the families involved in the study to uncover genetic links to heart disease.

Their research has already led to the development of one new heart disease blood test that’s currently in trials, but the team believe it could be expanded to find other markers.

“Heart disease is still the number one cause of death in Australia and many developed countries.

“Progress has been made, but there is still a lot of work to do to reduce people’s risk and treat those who already have it,” Prof Meikle said.

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