Proteomics-Based Soluble Urokinase Plasminogen Activator Receptor Levels Are Associated With Incident Heart Failure...

Area of Science:

• Cardiovascular Medicine
• Biomarker Research
• Proteomics

Background:

• Elevated soluble urokinase plasminogen activator receptor (suPAR) levels are linked to poor outcomes in established chronic heart failure (HF).
• The role of suPAR as a predictive biomarker for incident HF in the general population remains less understood.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the association between proteomics-based suPAR levels and the risk of developing incident heart failure (HF) in a large, general population cohort.
• To determine if suPAR provides incremental predictive value for HF risk beyond established risk factors and biomarkers.

Main Methods:

• Utilized data from 40,418 UK Biobank participants without prior HF or coronary artery disease.
• Employed Olink-based proteomics to measure suPAR levels and analyzed associations with incident HF using competing-risk regression.
• Assessed the incremental predictive power of suPAR using nested Cox modeling, adjusting for demographics, cardiovascular risk factors, NT-proBNP, and CRP.

Main Results:

• Over a median follow-up of 13.7 years, 1,428 cases of incident HF were recorded.
• Proteomics-based suPAR levels were independently associated with increased risk for all-cause, ischemic, and nonischemic HF.
• The inclusion of suPAR levels significantly improved the prediction model for incident HF risk (R² increase from 0.73 to 0.76).

Conclusions:

• Proteomics-based suPAR levels are a significant independent predictor of incident heart failure (HF) across different subtypes.
• suPAR offers valuable prognostic information for HF risk, augmenting traditional risk assessment tools.
• The current proteomics-based measurement may potentially underestimate the true effect size of suPAR in HF prediction.