Antioxidant drug may reverse Atherosclerosis and prevent heart attacks and strokes: Study
Atherosclerosis is the build-up of fatty deposits in the arteries. When LDL cholesterol becomes oxidised and builds up to form plaques in the artery walls, inflammation and damage increase which can cause the plaques to rupture and cause blood to clot.
Professor David Leake and his team have found that an antioxidant drug, cysteamine stops oxidation of LDL cholesterol by accumulating in the lysosomes. This may reverse atherosclerosis and may help prevent heart attacks and strokes due to clots.
The study has been published in JAHA: Journal of the American Heart Association.
The drug is found to be safe in humans where it has already been used to treat a rare lysosomal disease called cystinosis.
Previously, researchers at the University of Reading discovered that LDL cholesterol can be oxidised in acidic small 'bags' called lysosomes in immune cells within the artery wall.
When the researchers looked at mice with atherosclerosis, those treated with cysteamine had a 32 to 56 per cent reduction in the size of atherosclerotic plaques depending on the part of the aorta – the largest artery in the body – that was examined.
https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/JAHA.120.017524
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