Coronary artery disease and major depression might have a genetic connection through inflammatory pathways that increase the risk of cardiomyopathy, a heart condition involving the deterioration of the heart muscle, according to researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and Massachusetts General Hospital. Their findings, which were published on April 5 in the journal Nature Mental Health, indicate that the drugs used to treat depression may also be beneficial in lowering the risk of cardiomyopathy.A combination of depression and coronary artery disease could potentially lower inflammation and help prevent the development of cardiomyopathy, according to a study. The study’s corresponding author, Lea Davis, PhD, believes that chronic low-level inflammation may play a significant role in both depression and cardiovascular disease. It is well established that depression is often linked to other serious health conditions. Up to 44% of patients with coronary artery disease (CAD), the most prevalent form of cardiovascular disease, also suffer from depression.ease, has a diagnosis of major depression as well. However, the biological connection between the two conditions is not well understood.
One potential link is inflammation. Both conditions have been linked to changes in inflammatory markers, indicating a possible shared biological pathway linking neuroinflammation in depression to atherosclerotic inflammation in CAD.
In this study, researchers used a technique called transcriptome-wide association scans to identify single nucleotide polymorphisms (genetic variations) that regulate the expression of genes associated with both CAD and depression.In a recent study, researchers have found a link between depression and coronary artery disease (CAD). They identified 185 genes that were significantly associated with both depression and CAD, and these genes were found to have roles in inflammation and cardiomyopathy. This suggests that individuals with a predisposition to both depression and CAD may also be at risk for developing cardiomyopathy, a condition that affects the heart muscle. When the researchers analyzed electronic health record databases, they found a higher incidence of cardiomyopathy in patients with depression and CAD. This suggests that there is a connection between these conditions, which they referred to as “major depressive CAD” or “(m)dCAD.”The number of genes associated with (m)dCAD was found to be lower in patients with CAD and depression compared to those with CAD only. One potential reason for this could be the effect of medications used to treat CAD and depression, such as statins and antidepressants, which may help prevent the development of cardiomyopathy by reducing inflammation, as suggested by the researchers. “Further research is necessary to explore the most effective treatment approaches,” Davis remarked, “but at the very least, this study indicates that the management of depression or cardiovascular disease should take into account the overall health of the patient’s heart and brain.” Kritika Singh, PhD, the lead author of the paper, is a former graduate student.A former student in the Davis lab is now working as a postdoctoral Innovation Fellow at Novartis in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Other VUMC co-authors include Tyne Miller-Fleming, PhD, Peter Straub, MS, Nancy Cox, PhD, who is the founding director of the Vanderbilt Genetics Institute, and institute members Quinn Wells, MD, PharmD, MSCI, who is an associate professor of Medicine in the Division of the Cardiovascular Medicine, and Emily Hodges, PhD, who is an assistant professor of Biochemistry.
The research received support from National Institutes of Health grants R56MH120736, R01H118233, 1F31MH124306, and 1R01HL140074, as well as an American Heart Association Fellowship.
