"Game-changing" University of Otago - Ōtākou Whakaihu Waka research projects focussed on novel scanning, tests and biomarkers to detect cardiovascular disease have been awarded eight grants and scholarships as part of the Heart Foundation of New Zealand's $4.2 million of investment nationally into life-saving heart research for 2025.
Seven of the eight grants involve researchers from the Faculty of Medicine – Christchurch's acclaimed Christchurch Heart Institute (CHI) which sits within the campus' Department of Medicine.
The CHI's Dr Louise Paton has received two awards - a Project Grant as well as a Heart Foundation Research Fellowship - valued at half a million dollars in total.
Dr Louise Paton
The Fellowship will support Dr Paton in progressing her career emphasis and international collaboration efforts on the application of mass spectrometry to improve diagnosis and management of heart disease - also the focus of her Project Grant award.
She is currently the sole researcher in Aotearoa New Zealand focussed on this rapidly evolving technology, specifically a metabolite formed from lactate called Lac-Phe, an important source of energy for the heart and a powerful predictor of heart failure, mortality in breathless patients, respiratory risk infection and bleeding.
"I am extremely grateful to the Heart Foundation as this funding will help validate some initial findings and optimise a pathway to applying Lac-Phe to risk stratification and guidance of management in heart failure, to potentially lower hospitalisation rates, morbidity and mortality," Dr Paton explains.
"The aim is to also develop a tool to more accurately identify patients who would benefit most from intensive therapy and management after a heart failure event."
Acting DVC Research & Enterprise, Martin Gagnon, congratulates all the Otago recipients on their funding success.
"It is wonderful to see such a great variety of research being funded, especially on such important mahi as heart health. It's especially pleasing to know the impact this important work will have on aims to predict heart disease and reduce health inequities in our communities."
Exploring revolutionary heart imaging technology
Fellow CHI researcher Dr Charlotte Greer has been awarded a $337,000 Heart Foundation Senior Fellowship to explore a revolutionary heart imaging technology called photon-counting CT.
"This generous support will help investigate the use of photon-counting CT scans to access different heart conditions from heart failure to coronary artery disease, and see how they compare with existing imaging methods," Dr Greer says.
Hailed as a "game-changer" which could transform how heart disease is diagnosed and treated, the technology is already being rolled out at Christchurch and Kenepuru hospitals, producing ultra-high-resolution images of heart muscle, arteries and surrounding fat tissue that traditional CT scanners often miss.
CHI investigator Dr Sarah Appleby's grant will help study the relationship between the gut and the heart, and whether bacteria from the gut can be used to identify heart attack patients most at risk of developing heart failure before symptoms appear.
"This welcome support will help investigate the development of a new simple blood test or panel of tests to predict which patients are at high risk, and also discover which bacteria can be modified and used as treatment targets," Dr Appleby says.
"It's hoped the research could lead to earlier and more personalised treatments that balance bacteria to improve gut health - thereby reducing heart injury – areas current therapies don't address."
Developing biomarker to identify individuals at risk of heart disease
Associate Professor Anna Pilbrow, along with fellow CHI PhD student Sam Gibbs, are grateful for their Project Grant funding, which will support development of an epigenetic biomarker to help identify individuals most at risk of heart disease.
"Over time, lifestyle, environmental and genetic factors can alter the chemistry of our DNA without changing the DNA sequence, through an epigenetic process called DNA methylation," Associate Professor Pilbrow explains.
"Using DNA taken from blood samples, we will compare the DNA methylation profiles of people who experienced unexpected heart disease with those who remained heart healthy, to build a statistical model or 'epigenetic score'. By incorporating someone's genetic and environmental risk of heart disease through DNA methylation we hope to improve clinical risk prediction."
The CHI 's Dr Andree Pearson is "extremely thankful" for further Project Grant support to expand her marae-based study, Hauora Manawa mō ngā Kaumātua me ngā Whānau, investigating the effects of age and ethnicity on heart structure and function in older Māori.
She says the grant will help fund a target of 200 older Māori participants, with a focus on biomarkers of heart disease and echocardiography to directly assess kaumātua heart health.
"Our findings will help establish the appropriateness of current clinical reference limits for Māori patients, enabling equitable use of heart disease tests," Dr Pearson says.
"Participants have so far enjoyed and been encouraged by the relaxed and inclusive nature of our study held at marae, which is helping increase the kōrero between Māori in the community and health professionals."
Can hidden genetic factors help identify people at risk?
PhD student Janny Lau has been awarded a $50,000 Heart Foundation Postgraduate Scholarship, to help investigate whether hidden genetic factors can help identify people at risk of early-onset heart disease, particularly those who appear low-risk under current screening tools but have a strong family history of heart disease and stroke.
The second part of the CHI team's research will aim to understand why Māori and Pasifika typically show lower levels of a key biomarker called NT-proBNP to diagnose heart failure, potentially leading to missed or delayed diagnoses.
Dr Debina Sarkar, from the Faculty of Medicine – Dunedin's Department of Pathology, has been awarded $20,000 to investigate the impact of mutation of a gene called TP53 on lipid dysregulation in atherosclerosis.
Findings from this project will help pinpoint individuals who maybe at a higher risk of developing atherosclerosis and severe cardiovascular diseases and could one day lead to the development of a simple screening tool or test, prioritizing individuals at higher risk of heart disease.
