Clinical and prognostic associations of autoantibodies recognizing adrenergic/muscarinic receptors in patients with heart failure

BIOSTAT-CHF Consortium, George Markousis-Mavrogenis, Waldemar B Minich, Ali A Al-Mubarak, Stefan D Anker, John G F Cleland, Kenneth Dickstein, Chim C Lang, Leong L Ng, Nilesh J Samani, Faiez Zannad, Marco Metra, Petra Seemann, Antonia Hoeg, Patricio Lopez, Dirk J van Veldhuisen, Rudolf A de Boer, Adriaan A Voors, Peter van der Meer, Lutz Schomburg*Nils Bomer

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

4 Citations (Scopus)
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Abstract

AIMS: The importance of autoantibodies (AABs) against adrenergic/muscarinic receptors in heart failure (HF) is not well-understood. We investigated the prevalence and clinical/prognostic associations of four AABs recognizing the M2-muscarinic receptor or the β1-, β2-, or β3-adrenergic receptor in a large and well-characterized cohort of patients with HF.

METHODS AND RESULTS: Serum samples from 2256 patients with HF from the BIOSTAT-CHF cohort and 299 healthy controls were analysed using newly established chemiluminescence immunoassays. The primary outcome was a composite of all-cause mortality and HF rehospitalization at 2-year follow-up, and each outcome was also separately investigated. Collectively, 382 (16.9%) patients and 37 (12.4%) controls were seropositive for ≥1 AAB (P = 0.045). Seropositivity occurred more frequently only for anti-M2 AABs (P = 0.025). Amongst patients with HF, seropositivity was associated with the presence of comorbidities (renal disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, stroke, and atrial fibrillation) and with medication use. Only anti-β1 AAB seropositivity was associated with the primary outcome [hazard ratio (95% confidence interval): 1.37 (1.04-1.81), P = 0.024] and HF rehospitalization [1.57 (1.13-2.19), P = 0.010] in univariable analyses but remained associated only with HF rehospitalization after multivariable adjustment for the BIOSTAT-CHF risk model [1.47 (1.05-2.07), P = 0.030]. Principal component analyses showed considerable overlap in B-lymphocyte activity between seropositive and seronegative patients, based on 31 circulating biomarkers related to B-lymphocyte function.

CONCLUSIONS: AAB seropositivity was not strongly associated with adverse outcomes in HF and was mostly related to the presence of comorbidities and medication use. Only anti-β1 AABs were independently associated with HF rehospitalization. The exact clinical value of AABs remains to be elucidated.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1690-1705
Number of pages16
JournalCardiovascular Research
Volume119
Issue number8
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Jun-2023

Keywords

  • Humans
  • Prognosis
  • Autoantibodies
  • Heart Failure
  • Receptors, Muscarinic
  • Receptor, Muscarinic M2
  • Receptors, Adrenergic

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