Project description:Frailty in elderly cardiovascular disease (CVD) patients is linked to declining functional capacity and procedural complications. This study investigated the transcriptomic signature of frailty in patients ≥70 years undergoing cardiac surgery or TAVI. Frailty was assessed using mobility, gait speed, and handgrip strength. Muscle samples were collected during surgery for RNA sequencing, and gene expression was analyzed. Transcriptomic analysis identified 10 frailty-associated genes, with S100A1 showing the strongest association. Functional studies confirmed S100A1’s role in muscle function, and higher blood S100A1 levels correlated with handgrip strength in a second cohort. S100A1 is a potential target for addressing frailty in elderly CVD patients and offers insights into genetic factors contributing to frailty.
Project description:BackgroundProspective cohort studies suggest that frailty is associated with an increased risk of incident cardiovascular disease (CVD) morbidity and mortality, but their mechanistic and developmental relations are not fully understood. We investigated whether frailty predicted an increased risk of incident nonfatal and fatal CVD among community-dwelling older adults.MethodsA population cohort of 5015 participants aged 55 years and above free of CVD at baseline was followed for up to 10 years. Pre-frailty and frailty were defined as the presence of 1-2 and 3-5 modified Fried criteria (unintentional weight loss, weakness, slow gait speed, exhaustion, and low physical activity), incident CVD events as newly diagnosed registered cases of myocardial infarction (MI), stroke, and CVD-related mortality (ICD 9: 390 to 459 or ICD-10: I00 to I99). Covariate measures included traditional cardio-metabolic and vascular risk factors, medication therapies, Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS), Mini-Mental State Exam (MMSE), and blood biomarkers (haemoglobin, albumin, white blood cell counts and creatinine).ResultsPre-frailty and frailty were significantly associated with elevated HR = 1.26 (95%CI: 1.02-1.56) and HR = 1.54 (95%CI:1.00-2.35) of overall CVD, adjusted for cardio-metabolic and vascular risk factors and medication therapies, but not after adjustment for GDS depression and MMSE cognitive impairment. The HR of association between frailty status and both CVD mortality and overall mortality, however, remained significantly elevated after full adjustment for depression, cognitive and blood biomarkers.ConclusionFrailty was associated with increased risk of CVD morbidity and especially mortality, mediated in parts by traditional cardio-metabolic and vascular risk factors, and co-morbid depression and associated cognitive impairment and chronic inflammation. Given that pre-frailty and frailty are reversible by multi-domain lifestyle and health interventions, there is potential benefits in reducing cardiovascular diseases burden and mortality from interventions targeting pre-frailty and early frailty population.
Project description:Frailty affects the physical, cognitive, and social domains exposing older adults to an increased risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and death. The mechanisms linking frailty and cardiovascular outcomes are mostly unknown. Here, we studied the association of abundance (flow cytometry) and gene expression profile (RNAseq) of stem/progenitor cells (HSPCs) and molecular markers of inflammaging (ELISA) with the cardiorespiratory phenotype and prospective adverse events of individuals classified according to levels of frailty. Two cohorts of older adults were enrolled in the study. In a cohort of pre-frail 35 individuals (average age: 75 years), a physical frailty score above the median identified subjects with initial alterations in cardiorespiratory function. RNA sequencing revealed S100A8/A9 upregulation in HSPCs from the bone marrow (>10-fold) and peripheral blood (>200-fold) of individuals with greater physical frailty. Moreover higher frailty was associated with increased alarmins S100A8/A9 and inflammatory cytokines in peripheral blood. We then studied a cohort of 104 more frail individuals (average age: 81 years) with multi-domain health deficits. Reduced levels of circulating HSPCs and increased S100A8/A9 concentrations were independently associated with the frailty index. Remarkably, low HSPCs and high S100A8/A9 simultaneously predicted major adverse cardiovascular events at 1-year follow-up after adjustment for age and frailty index. In conclusion, inflammaging characterized by alarmin and pro-inflammatory cytokines in pre-frail individuals is mirrored by the pauperization of HSPCs in frail older people with comorbidities. S100A8/A9 is upregulated within HSPCs, identifying a phenotype that associates with poor cardiovascular outcomes.
Project description:BackgroundInsulin resistance and diabetes are associated with an increased risk of frailty, and frailty is associated with cardiovascular disease and premature mortality. We aim to investigate the impact of long-term insulin resistance trajectories on future frailty and cardiovascular risk among young adults.MethodsIn total, 3168 participants with a 30-year follow-up period. The baseline period covered the first 15 years as the exposure period. Insulin resistance was determined using the homeostasis model assessment for insulin resistance (HOMA-IR), and three trajectories (low, moderate, and high) were constructed. The subsequent 15 years constituted the event accrual period. Frailty was assessed using a deficit accumulation mode, and cardiovascular outcomes were obtained from the 15-year event accrual period.ResultsThe mean age of all 3168 participants was 41.0 (37.0-43.0) years, with 1750 (55.2%) being women. Participants in the high level of insulin resistance trajectory had an increased prevalence of frailty (OR: 1.55, 95% CI: 1.05-2.30, P = 0.028). Although no statistically significant associations were observed after full adjustment, single-factor analysis indicated association between the moderate and high trajectories and frailty progression. Additionally, participants with high level of insulin resistance trajectory were associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease, coronary heart disease, and stroke. A notable correlation between HOMA-IR trajectory and cardiovascular diseases was still discernible within the subgroup where the frailty index ≥0.12 (HR: 2.12, 95% CI: 1.17-3.83, P = 0.013) (P for interaction >0.05).ConclusionsLong-term high level of insulin resistance is associated with high prevalence of frailty, and an increased risk of cardiovascular events. Emphasizing the importance of early prevention and intervention for abnormal glucose metabolism in young adults to prevent frailty and cardiovascular disease.
Project description:Frailty is a syndrome of older age that reflects an impaired physiological reserve and decreased ability to recover from medical stressors. While the impact of frailty on mortality in cardiovascular disease has been well described, its impact on cardiovascular disease-specific health status-cardiac symptoms, physical functioning and quality of life-has been less well studied. In this review, we summarise the impact of frailty on health status outcomes across different cardiovascular conditions. In heart failure, frail patients have markedly impaired disease-specific health status and are at risk for subsequent health status deteriorations. However, frail patients have similar or even greater health status improvements with interventions for heart failure, such as cardiac rehabilitation or guideline-directed medical therapy. In valvular heart disease, the impact of frailty on disease-specific health status is of even greater concern since management involves physiologically taxing procedures that can worsen health status. Frailty increases the risk of poor health status outcomes after transcatheter aortic valve intervention or surgical aortic valve replacement for aortic stenosis, but there is no evidence that frail patients benefit more from one procedure versus another. In both heart failure and valvular heart disease, health status improvements may reverse frailty, highlighting the overlap between cardiovascular disease and frailty and emphasising that treatment should typically not be withheld based on the presence of frailty alone. Meanwhile, data are limited on the impact of frailty on health status outcomes in the treatment of coronary artery disease, peripheral artery disease and atrial fibrillation, and requires further research.
Project description:Most older individuals develop inflammageing, a condition characterized by elevated levels of blood inflammatory markers that carries high susceptibility to chronic morbidity, disability, frailty, and premature death. Potential mechanisms of inflammageing include genetic susceptibility, central obesity, increased gut permeability, changes to microbiota composition, cellular senescence, NLRP3 inflammasome activation, oxidative stress caused by dysfunctional mitochondria, immune cell dysregulation, and chronic infections. Inflammageing is a risk factor for cardiovascular diseases (CVDs), and clinical trials suggest that this association is causal. Inflammageing is also a risk factor for chronic kidney disease, diabetes mellitus, cancer, depression, dementia, and sarcopenia, but whether modulating inflammation beneficially affects the clinical course of non-CVD health problems is controversial. This uncertainty is an important issue to address because older patients with CVD are often affected by multimorbidity and frailty - which affect clinical manifestations, prognosis, and response to treatment - and are associated with inflammation by mechanisms similar to those in CVD. The hypothesis that inflammation affects CVD, multimorbidity, and frailty by inhibiting growth factors, increasing catabolism, and interfering with homeostatic signalling is supported by mechanistic studies but requires confirmation in humans. Whether early modulation of inflammageing prevents or delays the onset of cardiovascular frailty should be tested in clinical trials.
Project description:AimsPhysical frailty is a commonly encountered geriatric syndrome among older adults without coronary heart disease (CHD). The impact of frailty on the incidence of long-term cardiovascular outcomes is not known.We aimed to evaluate the long-term association of frailty, measured by the Fried frailty phenotype, with all-cause-mortality and MACE among older adults without a history of CHD at baseline in the National Health and Aging Trends Study.Methods and resultsWe used the National Health and Aging Trends Study, a prospective cohort study linked to a Medicare sample. Participants with a prior history of CHD were excluded. Frailty was measured during the baseline visit using the Fried physical frailty phenotype. Cardiovascular outcomes were assessed during a 6-year follow-up.Of the 4656 study participants, 3259 (70%) had no history of CHD 1 year prior to their baseline visit. Compared to those without frailty, subjects with frailty were older (mean age 82.1 vs. 75.1 years, P < 0.001), more likely to be female (68.3% vs. 54.9%, P < 0.001), and belong to an ethnic minority. The prevalence of hypertension, falls, disability, anxiety/depression, and multimorbidity was much higher in the frail and pre-frail than the non-frail participants. In a Cox time-to-event multivariable model and during 6-year follow-up, the incidences of death and of each individual cardiovascular outcomes were all significantly higher in the frail than in the non-frail patients including major adverse cardiovascular event (MACE) [hazard ratio (HR) 1.77, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.53, 2.06], death (HR 2.70, 95% CI 2.16, 3.38), acute myocardial infarction (HR 1.95, 95% CI 1.31, 2.90), stroke (HR 1.71, 95% CI 1.34, 2.17), peripheral vascular disease (HR 1.80, 95% CI 1.44, 2.27), and coronary artery disease (HR 1.35, 95% CI 1.11, 1.65).ConclusionIn patients without CHD, frailty is a risk factor for the development of MACEs. Efforts to identify frailty in patients without CHD and interventions to limit or reverse frailty status are needed and, if successful, may limit subsequent adverse cardiovascular events.
Project description:While frailty is a prominent risk factor in an aging population, the underlying biology of frailty is incompletely described. Here, we integrate 979 circulating proteins across a wide range of physiologies with 12 measures of frailty in a prospective discovery cohort of 809 individuals with severe aortic stenosis (AS) undergoing transcatheter aortic valve implantation. Our aim was to characterize the proteomic architecture of frailty in a highly susceptible population and study its relation to clinical outcome and systems-wide phenotypes to define potential novel, clinically relevant frailty biology. Proteomic signatures (specifically of physical function) were related to post-intervention outcome in AS, specifying pathways of innate immunity, cell growth/senescence, fibrosis/metabolism, and a host of proteins not widely described in human aging. In published cohorts, the "frailty proteome" displayed heterogeneous trajectories across age (20-100 years, age only explaining a small fraction of variance) and were associated with cardiac and non-cardiac phenotypes and outcomes across two broad validation cohorts (N > 35,000) over ≈2-3 decades. These findings suggest the importance of precision biomarkers of underlying multi-organ health status in age-related morbidity and frailty.
Project description:BackgroundObesity is associated with increased cardiovascular risk; however, the potential role of dysregulations in the adipose tissue (AT) metabolome is unknown.ObjectivesThe aim of this study was to explore the role of dysregulation in the AT metabolome on vascular redox signaling and cardiovascular outcomes.MethodsA screen was conducted for metabolites differentially secreted by thoracic AT (ThAT) and subcutaneous AT in obese patients with atherosclerosis (n = 48), and these metabolites were then linked with dysregulated vascular redox signaling in 633 patients undergoing coronary bypass surgery. The underlying mechanisms were explored in human aortic endothelial cells, and their clinical value was tested against hard clinical endpoints.ResultsBecause ThAT volume was associated significantly with arterial oxidative stress, there were significant differences in sphingolipid secretion between ThAT and subcutaneous AT, with C16:0-ceramide and derivatives being the most abundant species released within adipocyte-derived extracellular vesicles. High ThAT sphingolipid secretion was significantly associated with reduced endothelial nitric oxide bioavailability and increased superoxide generated in human vessels. Circulating C16:0-ceramide correlated positively with ThAT ceramides, dysregulated vascular redox signaling, and increased systemic inflammation in 633 patients with atherosclerosis. Exogenous C16:0-ceramide directly increased superoxide via tetrahydrobiopterin-mediated endothelial nitric oxide synthase uncoupling and dysregulated protein phosphatase 2 in human aortic endothelial cells. High plasma C16:0-ceramide and its glycosylated derivative were independently related with increased risk for cardiac mortality (adjusted hazard ratios: 1.394; 95% confidence interval: 1.030 to 1.886; p = 0.031 for C16:0-ceramide and 1.595; 95% confidence interval: 1.042 to 2.442; p = 0.032 for C16:0-glycosylceramide per 1 SD). In a randomized controlled clinical trial, 1-year treatment of obese patients with the glucagon-like peptide-1 analog liraglutide suppressed plasma C16:0-ceramide and C16:0-glycosylceramide changes compared with control subjects.ConclusionsThese results demonstrate for the first time in humans that AT-derived ceramides are modifiable regulators of vascular redox state in obesity, with a direct impact on cardiac mortality in advanced atherosclerosis. (The Interaction Between Appetite Hormones; NCT02094183).