Heart valve diseases affect millions worldwide, yet no tablet-based medications exist to prevent or treat them. Patients with severe valve disease require major surgery, with no medications to slow disease progression. Our research aims to identify effective medications for heart valve diseases, focusing initially on aortic stenosis (AS), narrowing of the aortic valve affecting 12% of people over 75. When the aortic valve narrows, blood flow is restricted, causing heart failure and death if untreated. We will then expand to mitral and tricuspid regurgitation, which similarly lack targeted medical therapies.
We will use Mendelian randomisation method, which uses genetic information to predict medication effectiveness. This approach is faster and less expensive than traditional trials and predicts lifelong medication effects.
We will test whether medications for high cholesterol, anti-calcific and emerging therapies might prevent valve disease. We will examine whether medication combinations work better than single drugs.
We will also work towards developing new statistical methods to address these questions and questions for cardiovascular diseases more broadly. UK Biobank is ideal for this research, containing genetic and health data from 500,000 people, providing statistical power to detect real effects and test multiple medications. This large sample is essential because some valve diseases are relatively uncommon.
If successful, our research will guide future clinical trials testing medications for valve disease, potentially leading to treatments that help patients avoid or delay surgery, improve quality of life, and reduce healthcare costs.
