Approved research

Serum cardiometabolic biomarkers in relation to all-cause and cause-specific mortality

Lay summary

Despite substantial epidemiologic evidence supports the association between cardiometabolic biomarkers and risk of cardiovascular, metabolic disease and cancer, how these biomarkers may influence all-cause and cause-specific mortality remain to be established. Previous studies were limited by the relatively small sample size, inclusion of men or women only, short duration of follow up, examination of CVD or cancer mortality only, or inadequate control for confounding. Therefore, a systematic investigation of cardiometabolic biomarkers with mortality in a large-scale cohort is needed to better understand the role of metabolic disturbances in death risk. We will utilize data from UK biobank to prospectively investigate associations of 14 serum biomarkers, including lipid profiles (i.e., Cholesterol, Direct Low Density Lipoprotein, HDL-Cholesterol, Triglyceride, Apolipoprotein A, and Lipoprotein (a)), inflammatory marker (C-reactive Protein), IGF1, HbA1c, glucose, and sex hormones (i.e., testosterone, oestradiol, sex hormone binding globulin), with the risk of all-cause and cause-specific mortality (i.e., death from CVD, cancer, and other causes).

Scope extension:

Amounting evidence indicates the critical role of systemic metabolic alterations in many chronic diseases. In population level, various circulating cardiometabolic and related biomarkers (e.g., lipid profiles, inflammatory markers, IGF1, HbA1c, glucose, and sex hormones [e.g., testosterone, sex hormone binding globulin]) have been linked to the risk of cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, and cancer. However, whether the biomarkers are associated with population mortality remains largely unknown. Therefore, this study aims to comprehensively assess the relationship of serum cardiometabolic and related markers with all-cause and cause-specific mortality.

We are very interested in the association of telomere length (TL), a newly released biomarker from UK Biobank, with all-cause and cause-specific mortality. It has been widely recognized that telomeres play a significant role in cellular aging. Epidemiological evidence also suggests the association between TL and the risk of cardiovascular disease and cancer, although the results are inconsistent. However, it remains largely unknown whether and how TL was associated with all-cause and cause-specific mortality. Additionally, we are now using available serum biochemical biomarkers to develop a prediction model for mortality risk, which would be useful to idenfiy individuals at high risk of early death . It remains unknown whether the model discrimination would be improved by adding TL to our current model. Therefore, this study aims to 1) assess theassociation between TL and mortality risk (i.e., death from CVD, cancer, and other causes); 2) evaluate the model performance by inlcuding various blood biomarkers including TL.