INTESTRAT-CAD PROJECT

A prospective clinical study integrating multiomics and advance coronary imaging for risk stratification in coronary atherosclerosis.

The coordinator of this project is Centro Cardiologico Monzino IRCCS . The Principal Investigator responsible for the project is Dr. Gualtiero Colombo.

 Pathology of interest:  Atherosclerosis
 Area of research:  Cardiology
 Start date:  January 1, 2020
 End date:  December 31, 2022 (extended until November 30, 2023)
 Funding: € 4.700.000,00
 Project partners:  - Centro Cardiologico Monzino IRCCS – leading partner
 - IRCCS Istituto Clinico Humanitas
 - IFOM Fondazione Istituto FIRC di Oncologia Molecolare (IFOM)
 - Fondazione IRCCS Policlinico San Matteo
 - Università degli Studi di Pavia

PROJECT SUMMARY

Coronary arteries are the arteries that bring blood to the heart and supply it with oxygen and nutrients. Like all arteries in our body, coronary arteries undergo a process called atherosclerosis over the years, which leads to the formation of deposits on their walls, known as atherosclerotic plaques, which in turn reduce their lumen.

Coronary atherosclerosis can occur in acute forms (unstable angina, heart attack) or stable forms (silent ischemia, exercise angina). The way coronary artery disease manifests itself is decisive for the patient's prognosis: the majority of the most severe events (death or heart failure) are the consequence of an acute manifestation, while the stable forms are characterized by a more favourable course.

The mode of presentation of the disease seems to be constant in a person: some patients show only acute episodes, others seem immune from dramatic events even in the presence of an advanced degree of atherosclerosis.

Contrary to what would seem intuitive, the severity of coronary artery disease is not directly proportional to the extent of atherosclerosis. On the contrary, non-obstructive coronary lesions (not detectable by traditional stress tests) may be responsible for acute forms of the disease.

This project will conduct an advanced study that, by combining clinical and biochemical data, CT, genomic analysis of DNA and its products (RNA), will help us to understand what are the factors that predispose to acute manifestations of the disease. It is an innovative precision medicine approach to identify integrated biomarkers that will allow us to identify, among patients with coronary atherosclerosis, who will develop an acute form of ischemic heart disease, who will develop a stable form and who will not develop the disease at all. It will then be possible to develop personalized and effective prevention and treatment protocols.

NEWS:

Aboutpharma published the following article on the project: https://www.aboutpharma.com/blog/2020/02/06/infarto-cardiaco-un-maxi-finanziamento-per-identificarlo-in-anticipo-e-senza-sintomi/

The Coordinator published a press release on Februay 6, 2020: progetto_intestrat-cad_finanziamento_regione_-_frrb

On June 23, 2021 the Coordinatore communicated the start of the second enrollment phase of the study: www.cardiologicomonzino.it/it/comunicati-stampa/2021/06/23/cosi-si-predice-linfarto-e-si-evita-nuova-ricerca-coordinata-dal-monzi/158/