A groundbreaking study by researchers at Perth’s Harry Perkins Institute of Medical Research has produced a genetic test for heart failure, which will enable early intervention and more personalised treatment for heart disease patients.
The research published last week in the International Journal of Molecular Science was led by Perkins leading researcher in genetics of complex disease and Director of the Centre for Diabetes Research, Professor Grant Morahan, who is also affiliated with The University of Western Australia and University of Melbourne.
The research team included Xintian Ge from Curtin University, Bek Brittain from the Perkins in collaboration with heart failure specialists, Professor David Kaye and Dr Luke Dawson from the Baker Institute in Melbourne and Professor Girish Dwivedi, Co-Group Leader of the Perkins Cardiovascular Science and Diabetes Research Program.
In Australia, more than 400,000 people develop heart failure annually and in 2021 heart failure or cardiomyopathy contributed to 26,000 deaths.
Heart failure results from the heart pumping blood around the body less effectively and it cannot be cured as the heart muscle has been irreversibly damaged.
“Until now, it has only been possible to predict health outcomes for rare mutations which cause rare single-gene diseases,” says Professor Morahan.
“There are no approved clinically useful genetic tests for the common diseases affecting our society, such as heart diseases, diabetes, cancer, dementia and so on.
“This is due in part to these diseases are caused by the interaction of environmental factors with a large (and unknown) number of genetic risk factors, each of which individually has only a low impact on disease risk.
“Our breakthrough now allows us to identify people who are at risk of these common diseases because they have certain patterns of these interacting genetic variants.
“People can now be identified as at risk of heart failure before they develop symptoms, years – even decades – earlier, allowing preventive treatments before irreversible damage occurs.”
Before the tests can be used to help people, regulatory approval is required, and investment is needed to obtain this approval.
The project was supported by the Federal Government via MTP Connect.
Read the full publication here.
