On October 22, research teams from Fuwai Hospital in Beijing, Southern Medical University and Ruijin Hospital of Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine published a study titled "Proteomic and histopathologic profiling reveal molecular features and clinical biomarkers of coronary atherosclerosis" in the international journal Biomarker Research (IF=11.5). By integrating coronary artery tissue proteomics with plasma proteomics, the study systematically depicted the molecular landscape of atherosclerosis and successfully identified novel blood biomarkers with diagnostic potential. ProteinT was honored to provide plasma proteomics testing services for this research.

Background: early diagnosis of coronary heart disease is urgent. Coronary atherosclerotic heart disease (CAD) is a leading cause of cardiovascular death worldwide. Current clinical diagnosis relies mainly on symptoms, imaging and a few conventional biomarkers, with limited ability to identify early plaque formation and instability. Finding blood biomarkers that reflect plaque initiation and progression is therefore key to early warning and risk stratification.

Highlights: proteomics reveals plaque progression pathways and plasma biomarkers. The team performed LC-MS/MS proteomics on 20 coronary segments from 4 patients with ischemic cardiomyopathy, identifying the complement/coagulation cascade and extracellular matrix (ECM) organization as two core pathways persistently dysregulated with disease progression. Combining single-cell RNA sequencing further localized these key proteins mainly to fibroblasts, macrophages and smooth-muscle cells, clarifying their cellular origin in plaque evolution.