So medications prescribed for coronary heart disease and depression, when used in combination, could reduce inflammation and prevent the development of cardiomyopathy, adds lead author Dr. Lea Davis, associate professor of genetic medicine. at the Vanderbilt Genetics Institute: “This work suggests that chronic low-grade inflammation may contribute significantly to depression and cardiovascular disease.”
Low-grade inflammation is enough
This is not the first research to document the link between depression and other serious health conditions. Up to 44% of patients with coronary heart disease, the most common form of cardiovascular disease, are also diagnosed with major depression. However, the biological relationship between the two diseases remains poorly understood.
Inflammation, a possible link, between the 2 conditions: changes in the levels of inflammatory markers are in fact observed in the 2 diseases, which suggests the existence of common biological pathways linking neuroinflammation in depression to atherosclerotic inflammation in coronary artery disease.
The study uses a transcriptome-wide association analysis technique to map single-nucleotide polymorphisms (genetic variations) involved in regulating the expression of genes associated with coronary artery disease and depression. This technique allows here
- to identify 185 genes significantly associated with depression and coronary heart disease;
- this suggests the existence of a concomitant predisposition to depression and coronary artery disease.
The concept of depressive coronary artery disease
If the data show a low prevalence of the combination of the 2 comorbidities in the general population, it is certainly, the researchers suggest, because medications prescribed for coronary heart disease and depression, such as statins and antidepressants, could prevent the development of cardiomyopathy by reducing inflammation.
The team is continuing its research in order to decipher the pathways involved and the optimal treatments, but is already calling on doctors to consider patients’ heart and brain health holistically, particularly when developing plans to manage depression or cardiovascular disease.
