Project Grant K23HL177335

This $190,491 Project Grant award from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), under the Cardiovascular Diseases Research federal grant program (CFDA 93.837), supports research to characterize the molecular markers in blood that are associated with the blood pressure response during acute exercise and their relationship to future hypertension and cardiovascular disease risk.

The key activities under this 5-year award include: 1) identifying circulating proteins associated with the exercise blood pressure response in two distinct exercise cohorts, 2) assessing the broader clinical implications of these protein markers by examining their associations with incident hypertension and cardiovascular disease in large, diverse patient populations, 3) integrating findings from animal models to understand the cell types and organ systems that secrete these proteins, and 4) evaluating whether these protein signatures correlate with exercise capacity and disease severity in heart failure patients, and whether they are modifiable through cardiac rehabilitation. This research is aimed at leveraging cutting-edge biochemical profiling to better characterize individual cardiovascular health responses during exercise, with the goal of enhancing risk assessment and identifying potential therapeutic targets.