Love is in the hair: arginine methylation of human hair proteins as novel cardiovascular biomarkers

Abstract

Cardiovascular disease is the major cause of death worldwide. Extensive cardiovascular biomarkers are available using blood tests but very few, if any, investigations have described non-invasive tests for cardiovascular biomarkers based on readily available hair samples. Here we show, first, that human hair proteins are post-translationally modified by arginine methylation (ArgMe). Using western blot, proteomic data mining and mass spectrometry, we identify several ArgMe events in hair proteins and we show that keratin-83 is extensively modified by ArgMe in the human hair. Second, using a preliminary cohort (n = 18) of heterogenous healthy donors, we show that the levels of protein ArgMe in hair correlate with serum concentrations of a well-established cardiovascular biomarker, asymmetric dimethylarginine (ADMA). Compared to blood collection, hair sampling is cheaper, simpler, requires minimal training and carries less health and safety and ethical risks. For these reasons, developing the potential of hair protein ArgMe as clinically useful cardiovascular biomarkers through further research could be useful in future prevention and diagnosis of cardiovascular disease.

Utilization of Host and Microbiome Features in Determination of Biological Aging

“…As for host-based markers, there have been attempts to tailor multiple measurements to predict the risk of specific age-related diseases, including cardiovascular diseases [ 67 , 117 , 118 ], type 2 diabetes [ 119 , 120 ], neurodegenerative disorders [ 52 , 121 ], and cancer [ 122 , 123 ]. While there is controversy regarding the ability of the DNA-methylation-derived epigenetic clocks to predict cardiovascular outcomes [ 67 , 117 ], measures of post-translational modifications by arginine methylation in human hair proteins have been suggested to be useful in that regard [ 118 ]. Despite the intriguing results and advantages of the noninvasive sampling method, this method does not appear to be better than existing ones and is, in any case, not suitable for the elderly suffering from baldness.…”

Development and evaluation of a novel fluorescent chiral derivatization reagent DBD-S-M-Pro: first observation of four chiral amino acids in human hair

“…In the biomedical arena, hair has been acknowledged as a noninvasive biological sample over the past few decades, and hair analysis for potential disease diagnosis has been frequently reported. [24][25][26][27][28][29] Hair analysis has attracted widespread interest and has led to the discovery of endogenous amino acids in human hair. 30,31 However, few of the existing methods can identify and measure D-amino acids in human hair.…”