Proteomics for heart failure risk stratification: a systematic review.

Area of Science:

• Cardiovascular Medicine
• Proteomics
• Biomarker Discovery

Background:

• Heart failure (HF) is a major cause of mortality with high clinical impact.
• High-throughput proteomics offers potential for improved HF risk stratification.
• The contribution of proteomic signatures to HF mortality prediction requires systematic evaluation.

Approach:

• Systematic review of prognostic studies using high-throughput proteomics (2012-2023).
• Included HF proteomics studies on human plasma/serum measuring numerous proteins via aptamer or antibody platforms.
• Assessed risk of bias using ROBINS-I tool.

Key Points:

• Nine observational studies were included, utilizing aptamer (3) and antibody (6) platforms.
• Considerable heterogeneity in study design, HF definitions, and outcome measures was observed.
• Twenty-one proteins were common in aptamer studies for all-cause death in HF with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF); one protein also linked to cardiovascular death in antibody studies.

Conclusions:

• A limited number of common protein signatures were identified across studies evaluating HF mortality.
• Heterogeneity across studies hinders broad inferences and highlights the need for standardized reporting.
• Standardized reporting criteria are proposed to enhance future proteomic research in heart failure.