El-Sabawi, Bassim.; Huang, Xiaoning.; Lin, Phillip.; Anwar, Mohammad Yaser.; Betti, Michael.; Kim, Namju.; Perry, Andrew S.; Perera, B. Lakshitha A.; Gajjar, Priya.; Colangelo, Laura A.; Amancherla, Kaushik.; Sheng, Quanhu.; Zhao, Shilin.; Stolze, Lindsay.; Farber-Eger, Eric.; Landman, Joshua M.; Miller, Patricia E.; Liu, Gabrielle Y.; Das, Suman.; Wells, Quinn S.; Terry, James G.; Lloyd-Jones, Donald.; Das, Saumya.; Khan, Sadiya S.; North, Kari E.; Below, Jennifer.; Nayor, Matthew.; Kalhan, Ravi.; Carr, John Jeffrey.; Gamazon, Eric R.; Shah, Ravi V. (2026).听.听Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology, 1鈥�15.听
Researchers are increasingly combining different kinds of biological data to identify which molecules may be most important in disease. In this study, they applied that approach to coronary artery calcium, or CAC, which is a buildup of calcium in the heart鈥檚 arteries and a marker of coronary disease. Using blood protein data from about 3,000 participants in the CARDIA study, the team looked for proteins linked both to existing CAC and to CAC that developed over 10 years. They also used genetic and gene-activity data from coronary artery tissue to help narrow down which findings were most likely to be biologically meaningful. The proteins and genes they identified pointed to several disease processes, including inflammation, scarring or fibrosis, changes in the blood vessel wall, oxidative lipid metabolism, calcification, and metabolism. Some of the proteins had already been linked to heart disease, while others were new. By combining protein measurements with genetic evidence and tissue-based gene expression data, the study highlights a way to prioritize likely disease-related targets and better understand the biology behind coronary artery calcification.
Graphical Abstract