Glycoprotein acetyls flag early cardiovascular risk

Circulating levels of glycoprotein acetyls (GlycA) can capture low-grade inflammation in early adolescence, which in turn predicts future risk of hypertension and metabolic syndrome, a study has found.

The analysis included 1,750 adolescents and young adults (mean age 15.4 years) from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC) and 1,556 (mean age 32.1 years) from the Cardiovascular Risk in Young Finns Study (YFS).

Researchers examine the associations of two inflammatory biomarkers (GlycA and high‐sensitivity C‐reactive protein [CRP]) with body composition, cardiovascular risk factors, and subclinical measures of vascular dysfunction in both cohorts. They also assessed the risk of developing hypertension and metabolic syndrome over 9‐to‐10‐year follow‐up as surrogate markers for future cardiovascular risk.

The levels of both inflammatory biomarkers were more likely to be lower in adolescents than young adults. Repeat measures of GlycA, taken 9–10 years apart, showed a moderate correlation with acute infectious illness in both ALSPAC and YFS, whereas the correlations observed for repeat measures of CRP were weaker in ALSPAC and moderate in YFS.

In multivariable linear regression models, GlycA was associated with multiple lifestyle‐related cardiovascular disease risk factors, cardiometabolic risk factor burden, and vascular dysfunction. On the other hand, the association of CRP levels with any measured cardiovascular risk factors or phenotypes appeared to be driven by body mass index.

In both cohorts, only GlycA predicted the future risk of both hypertension (risk ratio [RR], ≈1.1 per z‐score increase) and metabolic syndrome (RR, ≈1.2–1.3 per z‐score increase) over 9–10 years of follow‐up.

The present data suggest that GlycA is a stable inflammatory biomarker that may capture distinct sources of inflammation in the young and represent a more sensitive measure than CRP for detecting early cardiovascular risk.