Researchers identified blood-protein patterns linked to cardiovascular, kidney, and metabolic disease risk in children.
The study found similar protein patterns in adults with higher risks of these diseases.
The findings could eventually help doctors identify risk earlier, when prevention may have more time to work.
Heart disease, diabetes, kidney disease, and obesity are often thought of as adult health concerns. But new research suggests some of the biological changes linked to these conditions may begin much earlier — potentially during childhood.
In a study published in Nature Metabolism, researchers from UTHealth Houston and other institutions looked for biological clues that could signal cardiovascular-kidney-metabolic disease (CKMD) risk in children. CKMD refers to a group of conditions involving the heart, kidneys, and metabolism.
The researchers found that certain patterns in children's blood proteins were associated with traits linked to CKMD. Importantly, the findings don't mean that children with these protein patterns will definitely develop disease. Instead, they may provide clues about who could face greater risk later in life.
“Understanding the development of cardiovascular-kidney-metabolic disease across the lifecourse is critical,” researcher Heather Highland, Ph.D., said in a news release.
“Proteins circulating in the blood can serve as markers of nascent pathologies across the body. These early markers can help identify people at greater risk for increased monitoring and potentially early intervention.”
How researchers studied the children
The study included 273 Hispanic or Latino children and adolescents from the Border Health Research Cohort in Cameron County, Texas. Their average age was about 13, with participants ranging from childhood through adolescence.
Researchers examined 5,000 proteins circulating in the children's blood and compared those protein levels with 25 different CKMD-related traits. These included measures involving body composition, liver health, kidney function, cholesterol, and blood-sugar regulation.
Using this information, the researchers identified six groups, or "signatures," of proteins associated with multiple CKMD-related traits.
They then looked to see whether the same patterns appeared in adults. The researchers found similar relationships in adults from the same community and in 28,256 adults participating in the U.K. Biobank.
What the findings could mean for families
The results suggest that some biological signs associated with cardiometabolic disease may be detectable years before someone develops obvious disease. That's potentially important because identifying risk earlier could give doctors more time to monitor and address it.
The researchers also compared their findings with data from a clinical trial involving the GLP-1 drug semaglutide. Many of the proteins associated with higher CKMD risk changed in adults taking GLP-1 medication, suggesting these biological markers may be modifiable rather than permanent.
“This association is really one of the most exciting messages, because those proteins that predict the risk of cardiometabolic diseases all moved in a healthy direction after these adults took GLP-1. This makes this a modifiable risk state rather than a fixed marker of fate,” said corresponding author Kari North, PhD. “Childhood is the time that we really need to start intervening because it’s reversible.”
Still, this doesn't mean parents should expect this type of protein testing during a child's routine checkup. Many of the tests used in the study aren't part of standard pediatric visits. More research is needed to determine how these findings could eventually be used in everyday medical care.
For now, the study offers a closer look at how the roots of conditions affecting adult health may begin much earlier than previously recognized.
“The dysregulation of the proteins that influence risk of heart attack later in life, if we can reverse them in childhood, then we can really make a huge dent in the cardiovascular disease burden that we see in adult populations around the world today,” Dr. North said. "We need to do better screening in children, and if we see children who are at an elevated risk, the time to act is now.”