SCIENTISTS and public health experts are calling for a fundamental shift in how cardiovascular disease is diagnosed and treated, warning that current approaches intervene too late, often after irreversible damage has already occurred.
The call was made at a recent conference hosted by the Caribbean Public Health Agency at the University of Guyana under the theme “From Molecular Mechanisms to Medical Solutions: Driving Health Innovation Through Research.” The forum brought together regional and international experts to examine how advances in molecular science can transform healthcare outcomes.
Professor of Molecular and Cellular Biology and Head of the Molecular Biology Development and Disease (MBDD) Laboratory of the University College London (UCL), Dr. Vishwani Mahadeo-Heads, told the forum that non-communicable diseases remain among the most urgent global health challenges, citing warnings from the World Health Organization that premature deaths from these conditions, alongside mental health disorders, will continue to define global health burdens throughout the century.
She quoted from a 2025 report that cardiovascular disease alone accounts for around 19 million deaths annually, with cancer responsible for a further 10 million, alongside millions more linked to diabetes and related conditions.
She said the impact is deeply personal and widespread. “We are losing our loved ones, our mothers, fathers, wives, and husbands, and it is impacting everyone in our lives,” stressing that urgent action is needed, particularly in the Caribbean where preventable diseases such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and obesity remain major health concern including Guyana, that ranks among the highest globally for incidence rates. “We are at the top and not in the right way but the wrong,” she said.
A major issue, she explained, is that patients typically present only after significant damage has already occurred citing that most people visit a doctor when the damage has been done and is often irreversible. “At that stage, treatment is reactive rather than proactive, we are treating symptoms caused by tissue damage that has already occurred.”
Professor Heads described this as a critical clinical gap, where early biological changes in the body go undetected. “There is a window when damage is happening, when signals are being sent out because the heart is under stress, but we do not detect it in time to intervene.”
Explaining the progression of cardiovascular disease, she noted that it develops over decades and affects multiple systems, not just the heart. “It involves the blood vessels, fat cells, and other tissues. These changes are driven by inflammatory processes that occur over long periods.”
After years of study, she said researchers now understand that early changes begin at the most fundamental biological level. “We know that these changes arise at the level of DNA, RNA, and proteins,” pointing to the importance of molecular shifts long before symptoms appear. These early signals represent a critical but currently invisible stage of disease development. This is where emerging research into gene regulation is becoming central. Scientists are now focusing on key regulatory genes, often described as “master control genes,” more accurately known as transcription factors, which influence how large networks of genes respond to stress and disease.
By tracking these regulatory changes, researchers aim to develop biomarkers, measurable biological indicators that can detect disease before structural damage occurs.
Dr. Mahadeo-Heads explained that this depends on understanding how individual genes influence broader biological systems. “If we can isolate and study a single gene, we can begin to understand how it drives early disease changes. We can study it,” she noted, underscoring the importance of being able to experimentally examine these mechanisms to understand how disease begins.
Because these processes cannot be studied directly in humans, researchers rely on experimental models that allow them to manipulate specific genes and observe their effects on tissues such as the heart and brain. “By changing a single gene, we can study its impact. That is how we begin to understand not just what is happening, but why.”
She added that this approach could eventually transform how cardiovascular disease is detected, shifting medicine from reactive treatment to early prevention. By identifying molecular changes before symptoms appear, scientists hope to intervene during the earliest stages of disease development, when progression may still be preventable.
Dr. Mahadeo-Heads said the ultimate goal is to address what she called the “invisible stage” of disease, where biological changes are already underway but remain undetectable through current clinical methods.
She closed by noting that the landscape in Guyana has changed and now is the time to act. “In the past, we did not have the investment, the infrastructure, or the technology to engage in this level of research and intervention, but now we do and it is important that we take this step forward.”