Ceramides and Cardiovascular Risk Factors, Inflammatory Parameters and Left Ventricular Function in AMI Patients

Abstract

Ceramides, biologically active lipids correlated to oxidative stress and inflammation, have been associated with adverse outcomes in acute myocardial infarction (AMI). The purpose of this study was to assess the association between ceramides/ratios included in the CERT1 score and increased cardiovascular (CV) risk, inflammatory and left ventricular function parameters in AMI. Methods: high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry was used to identify Cer(d18:1/16:0), Cer(d18:1/18:0), and Cer(d18:1/24:1) levels and their ratios to Cer(d18:1/24:0), in 123 AMI patients (FTGM coronary unit, Massa, Italy). Results: Cer(d18:1/16:0): higher in female patients (<0.05), in patients with dyslipidemia (<0.05), and it directly and significantly correlated with aging, brain natriuretic peptide-BNP, erythrocyte sedimentation rate-ESR and fibrinogen. Cer(d18:1/18:0): higher in females (<0.01) and patients with dyslipidemia (<0.01), and increased according to the number of CV risk factors (considering hypertension, dyslipidemia and diabetes). Moreover, it significantly correlated with BNP, troponin at admission, ESR, C reactive protein-CRP, and fibrinogen. Cer(d18:1/24:1): significantly correlated with aging, BNP, fibrinogen and neutrophils. Cer(d18:1/16:0)/Cer(d18:1/24:0): higher in female patients (<0.05), and in patients with higher wall motion score index-WMSI (>1.7; ≤0.05), and in those with multivessel disease (<0.05). Moreover, it significantly correlated with aging, BNP, CRP, ESR, neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio-NRL, and fibrinogen. Cer(d18:1/18:0)/Cer(d18:1/24:0): higher in female patients (<0.001), and increased according to age. Moreover, it was higher in patients with lower left ventricular ejection fraction (<35%, ≤0.01), higher WMSI (>1.7, <0.05), and in those with multivessel disease (0.13 ± 0.06 vs. 0.10 ± 0.05 µM, <0.05), and correlates with BNP, ESR, CRP, fibrinogen and neutrophils, platelets, NLR, and troponin at admission. Multiple regression analysis showed that Cer(d18:1/16:0)/Cer(d18:1/24:0) and Cer(d18:1/18:0)/Cer(d18:1/24:0) remained as independent determinants for WMSI after multivariate adjustment (Std coeff 0.17, T-value 1.9, ≤0.05; 0.21, 2.6, <0.05, respectively). Conclusion: Distinct ceramide species are associated with CV risk, inflammation and disease severity in AMI. Thus, a detailed analysis of ceramides may help to better understand CV pathobiology and suggest these new biomarkers as possible risk predictors and pharmacological targets in AMI patients.

Inflammation and Oxidative Stress Role of S100A12 as a Potential Diagnostic and Therapeutic Biomarker in Acute Myocardial Infarction

“…Acute myocardial infarction (AMI) is one of the most serious cardiovascular diseases, an early diagnosis of AMI is very important, but diagnostic biomarkers and therapeutic targets available in the clinic are lacking [31][32][33]. Inflammation and oxidative stress are involved in adverse outcomes of AMI [34][35][36][37]. As a member of the S100 protein family, S100A12 has been confirmed to play a role in various cardiovascular disease [38][39][40][41][42].…”

Ceramides as Mediators of Oxidative Stress and Inflammation in Cardiometabolic Disease

“…Therefore, since the three latter ceramides are considered good predictors of adverse cardiovascular events, a ceramide-based score was proposed, it is named CERT1 and included these species and their ratio to C24:0 for normalization [ 40 , 41 ]. We recently evidenced that ceramide species and ratios in the CERT1 score resulted associated with cardiovascular risk, inflammation and disease severity in acute myocardial infarction [ 49 ]. Thus, their evaluation may help to better understand CV pathobiology and suggests these new biomarkers as possible risk predictors and pharmacological targets in AMI patients [ 50 ].…”

Systemic Immune-Inflammation Index and Systemic Inflammatory Response Index as Predictors of Mortality in ST-Elevation Myocardial Infarction

“…Data from a total of 105 consecutive STEMI patients (74 men, age: 70 ± 11 years) admitted to the Coronary Care Unit of the Ospedale del Cuore G. Pasquinucci-Clinical Cardiology Department in Massa (Italy) were retrospectively analyzed in the study. Data from patients about demographic characteristics, cardiovascular history, cardiovascular risk factors, and instrumental and laboratory parameters were obtained by the hospital-computerized database [ 25 ].…”