Inflammation-associated S100 proteins: links between arthritis and atherosclerosis

更深入地了解炎症对心血管疾病的基本作用，可以为治疗和诊断提供更好的策略。类风湿关节炎有共同的机制，这些患者发生心肌梗死和心力衰竭的风险明显高于健康正常人群。这个项目将改善心脏健康，因为它将解决新识别的蛋白质，称为S100蛋白质，如何介导发病机制，以及它们如何在细胞中受到各种治疗药物的调节。我们开发了一种潜在的诊断测试，可以区分心绞痛患者和关节炎患者，这可能有助于提高心血管疾病或关节炎患者的诊断和后续治疗。我们发现一些抗炎药物可以增强S100基因表达，而我们的初步数据表明一些降胆固醇药物（他汀类药物）可以降低S100基因表达。他汀类药物治疗关节炎患者的结果将有助于理解为什么通常用于心血管疾病患者管理的降胆固醇药物可能对关节炎患者的症状有效，并可能有助于改变这些患者的临床管理。

Deeper understanding of the basic contributions of inflammation to cardiovascular disease can lead to better strategies for treatment and diagnosis. There are shared mechanisms in rheumatoid arthritis and these patients are at significantly higher risk of myocardial infarction and heart failure than the healthy normal population. This project will improve heart health because it will address how newly-recognised proteins, called S100 proteins, mediate pathogenesis and how they are regulated in cells by various therapeutic drugs. We developed a potential diagnostic test that distinguishes patients with angina from those with arthritis and this could be useful in improving diagnosis and following treatment of patients with cardiovascular disease or arthritis. We find that some anti-inflammatory drugs enhance S100 gene expression whereas our preliminary data indicates that some cholesterol-lowering drugs (statins) reduce it. Results of treating patients with arthritis with statins will add to understanding of why cholesterol-lowering drugs commonly used in management of CVD patients may be effective in treating symptoms in arthritis sufferers and could contribute to changes in clinical management of these patients.