Home > Research Projects > Chest > Profiling of extra-cellular vesicle microRNAs to identify novel cardiac injury biomarkers

Profiling of extra-cellular vesicle microRNAs to identify novel cardiac injury biomarkers

Type: Chest

Grant holder: Dr. James Dear, Dr. P. Henrikson and Dr. M. Bailey, University of Edinburgh

Amount Awarded: £81,567 over one year

Year: 2015 - Finished

Currently, diagnosis of a heart attack requires a blood test taken 12 hours after the onset of chest pain.  The researchers will investigate new markers found in the blood, microRNAs, to identify those that may diagnose heart attacks more rapidly, and therefore improve patient care.  To achieve this, they will measure 1000s of microRNAs in blood samples already collected from patients undergoing by-pass surgery.  These patients got varying degrees of heart muscle injury following clearly defined surgical intervention.  Combining these samples with their expertise and experience in microRNAs has the potential to result in real benefit for patients.