More than 600 people are involved in three projects to investigate the impact of menopause on cardiovascular disease
Knowing and understanding the risks of cardiovascular disease in women in order to prevent and predict them early, mainly in menopause or in the stages close to it, are the priority objectives of the group led by the researcher of the Fundación Progreso y Salud Inés Pineda Torra, who develops her work at the Andalusian Center for Molecular Biology and Regenerative Medicine (Cabimer), under the Ministry of Health, Presidency and Emergencies. This type of research on women's cardiovascular health is especially novel, as it addresses the particularity of the female gender in the face of these diseases in a period of their life such as menopause or perimenopause.
In the European Day for the Prevention of Cardiovascular Risk, this research focuses on cardiovascular diseases, which are the leading cause of death among women worldwide and in Spain tend to exceed even the figures in men. However, for years biomedicine has maintained a significant gap: research has been focused on men or on male experimental models and many specific mechanisms of risk in women remain poorly understood.
According to Dr. Pineda-Torra, “we want to better understand cardiovascular risk in women in the general population at a preclinical stage and specifically assess how menopause and associated hormonal and metabolic changes affect this risk.” Pineda has indicated that "we hope to advance our knowledge of molecular patterns to better understand and predict the risk of developing atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease in women."
These projects combine state-of-the-art omics technologies and artificial intelligence modeling to better understand cardiovascular risk in women in preclinical stages. specifically assessing how menopause and associated hormonal and metabolic changes influence this risk.
Dr. Inés Pineda-Torra and her research group develop three projects that, together, have managed to recruit 630 volunteers. All studies have successfully concluded their recruitment phase and are at an advanced stage of analysis of the data, obtaining relevant results. Specifically, the differences obtained in the proteomic profile associated with sex are highlighted, which would further support the importance of conducting studies focused on women. In addition, relevant metabolic changes have also been observed in women who are in the postmenopausal stage.
It should be noted that all these studies are carried out in close collaboration with different public institutions, such as the Biobank of the Public Health System of Andalusia. Similarly, the projects are coordinated by a public-private consortium, facilitating the translational impact of these projects. Taken together, these papers denote a commitment to women's health research and risk prediction cardiovascular.
Source: Ministry of Health, Presidency and Emergencies