Lay summary
Coronary artery disease (CAD) is the leading cause of death in our community. Unfortunately, current risk prediction tools lack both sensitivity and specificity and there is a clear need to develop improved methods of identifying those at risk. While both inherited and environmental factors each contribute significant risk, our current lack of understanding of gene-environment interactions has limited our ability to identify new adjunctive risk tools.
In this study we will use epigenetics, specifically genome-wide DNA methylation profiling, as a marker of some of these interactions, in order to identify novel CAD risk markers. Our own preliminary data, suggests that this approach may not only yield significant advances in CAD risk prediction, but may also identify novel therapeutic targets amenable to drug treatments. By combining genetic, epigenetic and demographic risk information for each study participant this research represents an important step towards the delivery of personalised cardiovascular disease medicine.