Ischemic heart disease is a major cause of human cardiac morbidity and mortality, affecting over 14 million people in the United States alone. Current detection of cardiac ischemia relies upon identification of electrocardiographic anomalies and the release of cardiac markers from the damaged myocardial tissue. Unfortunately, patients with acute myocardial infarction are often insensitive to these tests during the early phases of intervention and, as a result, more markers for cardiac ischemic disease are needed. An NIH technology describes Cripto-1 as a biomarker for infarcted cardiac tissues. Cripto-1 is a member of the epidermal growth factor (EGF)-related proteins and is currently thought to play an important role in several cancers. The present invention shows that Cripto-1 is overexpressed in infarcted myocardial tissue, and not expressed or weakly expressed in non-infarct-related heart disease tissues and normal tissues. The technology could represent a new biomarker for the diagnosis of myocardial infarction, as well as a surrogate biomarker to monitor the healing process, including regenerative stem cell activity of the infarcted myocardial tissue.
Applications include a diagnostic tool for the detection of myocardial infarction and a method to monitor stem cell activity in damaged myocardial tissue.
More info: John D. Hewes, Ph.D., 301-435-3121, hewesj@mail.nih.gov
