Proteomics Profiling and Risk of New-Onset Atrial Fibrillation: Framingham Heart Study

Background: Prior studies relating proteomics markers to incident AF screened for limited numbers of proteins. Methods and Results: We performed proteomics assays among participants from the Framingham Heart Study Offspring attending their fifth examination. Plasma protein levels (n=1373) were measured by the SOMAscan proteomic profiling platform. We used robust inference for the Cox proportional hazards model to relate each protein level with incident AF. In addition, we examined the association between AF-related genetic loci and levels of proteins associated with AF. Our study included 1885 participants (mean age 55±10 years, 54% women) who had proteomic profiles measured. A total of 349 participants developed AF during follow-up (mean follow-up 18.3 years). We observed that 8 proteins were significantly associated with incident AF after adjusting for age, sex, technical covariates, and correction for multiple testing (P<0.05/1373=3.6×10⁻⁵). After additional adjustments for clinical factors associated with AF, ADAMTS13 and N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide remained significantly associated with the risk of incident AF (hazard ratio, 0.78; 95% CI, 0.70–0.88; and 1.44; 95% CI, 1.22–1.70, respectively; P<3.6×10⁻⁵ for both). None of the 8 proteins were encoded by genes at AF-related genetic loci previously identified by genome-wide association studies. Conclusions: We identified 8 proteins associated with risk of incident AF after adjustment for age and sex; 2 proteins were associated with AF after adjustment for AF risk factors. Future studies are needed to replicate our findings, identify whether the markers are mechanistically related to AF development, and whether they are clinically useful for identification of future AF risk.