New blood tests may reveal hidden inflammation of heart disease and Alzheimer’s disease

In a way that can change how doctors diagnose and monitor the development of various diseases, researchers at Western Reserve University have identified specific chemical markers that can cause blood tests to detect inflammation in specific organs. The discovery addresses the long-term challenge of medicine: While inflammation plays a role in almost every disease, current blood tests cannot indicate which organs or tissues are affected.

The study, published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), centers on compounds formed during inflammation that leave different chemical characteristics in different parts of the body.

“This study opens many amazing avenues for future research,” said Greg Tochtrop, professor of chemistry at Case Western Reserve, who led the survey. “This will directly lead to better understanding of inflammation and detecting diseases and discovering new drugs.”

The focus of the discovery is on how reactive oxygen species (ROS) – how highly reactive chemicals produced by immune cells fight pathogens – interact with fatty acids found in the cell membrane. The compounds produced by these interactions are called epoxy resin Celsius (Ekodes), which accumulate different tissues in a variety of tissues from the brain to the heart and liver.

The potential implication is more than just detection. This method can reflect the widely used diabetic A1C test that measures glucose-bound hemoglobin tracks blood sugar levels over three months. Similarly, Ekode-based tests can reveal abnormal patterns of oxidative stress that are unique to specific organs, which may mark early signs in situations such as heart disease, Alzheimer’s disease and various cancers.

This pathway to discovery requires significant innovation in the laboratory. “We had to develop many tools in the lab to search for them first,” Tochtrop explained. His team synthesized the model compounds and studied their reactions with different amino acids, and eventually found that the amino acid cysteine ​​formed lasting with Ekodes key.

This work has attracted the attention of drug researchers, as the recognition of reactive cysteines has become increasingly important in drug development. “Identification of reactive cysteines is currently at the heart of drug discovery,” Tochtrop noted. “This may help uncover many reactive cysteines that can target drug discovery, which is a valuable branch of our research.”

Environmental factors such as UV, pollution, radiation and smoking also produce ROS that lead to Ekode formation, indicating potential applications in monitoring exposure to environmental stressors. The team used mouse models and human tissue to validate their findings, developing antibodies that could detect different types of Ekodes and their different concentrations of them between different organs.

Going forward, Tochtrop’s team is particularly focused on identifying Ekode markers associated with age-related macular degeneration and diabetic retinopathy. These diseases that may cause vision loss can be detected by this study with early blood tests.

The method reflects a fundamental shift in how researchers detect disease-specific biomarkers. “We looked at the inherent chemistry of systems, predicted what will form, and searched for them,” Tochtrop said. “There are very important translational implications, but this is an example of how things can really be seen from the first principle,” he said. Developing the next step in clinical testing provides information.”

As the research progresses, the next phase involves correlating specific Ekode patterns with specific diseases, which could lead to a new generation of diagnostic tools that can detect inflammation with unprecedented accuracy. For patients and healthcare providers, this could mean early detection and more targeted treatments for multiple inflammatory conditions.