Researchers at Montreal Heart Institute (MHI) in Quebec, Canada, intend to study the genomes of up to 80,000 patients in search of genes associated with cardiovascular diseases and diabetes, their complications and the results of the treatments.
This study has the collaboration of Astrazeneca, which will contribute DNA samples of its biological bank.These samples include fabrics and blood that have been collected for a period of 12 years, prior informed consent of patients who have participated in clinical trials to test cardiovascular or diabetes treatments.
The information obtained with the genotipification of the samples will be applied to the development of new medications adapted to treat subgroups of patients with specific genetic profiles.
This study is one of the most exhaustive in its class carried out to date and will lead to the underlying biological mechanisms of these diseases and their complications.The analysis will also make known what genetic features are linked to better treatments.
The MHI Beaulieu-Saucier Pharmacogenomic Center will initially use an approach called the PSN analysis of the entire genome to identify the DNA regions that cause cardiovascular diseases and diabetes or that are associated with the response to treatments.
Then they will apply other technologies, such as the latest generation sequencing, to perform a sequencing of all genes in areas of interest with the objective of identifying new genes associated with the disease, to complications such as myocardial infarction, stroke, nephropathy or diabetic retinopathyand to the results of the treatments in terms of their degree of response to the medication.
The information will also allow a personalized health approach for the use of existing treatments, which means using specific medications to treat populations of patients who have the most possibilities to respond.At present, approximately 80% of the portfolio of drugs in Astrazeneca research benefits from a personalized health approach.
"We are delighted to work with the Montreal Heart Institute, which has the expertise and the technical knowledge to develop this transformational program that will give way to an unprecedented amount of genetic information about cardiovascular diseases and diabetes," said the vice president of attentionPersonalized health and biomarkers of Astrazeneca, Ruth March.
For his part, Dr. Jean-Claude Tardif, director of the Montreal Heart Institute Research Center, head of the Canadian Research Chair in Personalized and Translational Medicine and the subsidized research chair of the University of Montreal in Atherosclerosis, states that"This collaboration has the great potential to obtain advances in personalized cardiovascular medicine and diabetes, from which customs will be created for patients responding based on their genetic profile."