Dietary supplement tricaprin relieves painful symptoms in patients with triglyceride deposit cardiomyovasculopathy

Japan: Tricaprin is a commercially available food supplement that promotes lipid breakdown by heart muscle cells.

Researchers from Osaka University have found in a new study that Tricaprin may relieve troublesome and painful symptoms among patients suffering from triglyceride deposit cardiomyovasculopathy.

In addition tricaprin also resulted in remarkable regression of the triglyceride build-up in the blood vessels of the heart and could dramatically reverse the signs of heart disease in a subset of patients.

The study has been published in European Heart Journal. 

Coronary artery disease (CAD), which involves narrowing or even closing the heart arteries and often leads to heart attack, is a major cause of death worldwide. Despite treatments such as cholesterol-lowering drugs and drug-eluting stents- a new stent technology for local drug delivery- death from this condition is still common, and some patients appear to be resistant to treatment.

“Almost 15 years ago, we identified a new type of CAD called triglyceride deposit cardiomyovasculopathy (TGCV), in which the coronary arteries are occluded by triglyceride deposits generated by the defective intracellular breakdown of triglycerides in vascular smooth muscle cells,” says the lead author of the study Ken-ichi Hirano. “This mechanism makes TGCV distinct from classic cholesterol-induced atherosclerosis and accounts for patients resistant to standard CAD remedies.”

The researchers had developed diagnostic criteria for TGCV and showed that this condition is especially prevalent in patients with diabetes mellitus and those who have undergone hemodialysis. Despite the ability to diagnose this condition, effective treatment for these patients remained elusive.

“Now we report a remarkable regression of diffuse coronary atherosclerosis in two patients with TGCV,” states Ken-ichi Hirano. “Both had suffered from refractory chest pain and diabetes until diagnosis with TGCV, and subsequent dietary intake of tricaprin led to symptom relief.”

Tricaprin is a commercially available food supplement that promotes lipid breakdown by heart muscle cells. In addition to relieving these patients’ troublesome and painful symptoms, tricaprin also resulted in remarkable regression of the triglyceride build-up in the heart's blood vessels.

“While atherosclerosis regression following decreased serum lipid levels is well-described, this is the first regression report due to increased triglyceride lipolysis within cells, and as such is a conceptually novel treatment for coronary atherosclerosis,” says Ken-ichi Hirano.

Given that not all patients respond to current treatments for CAD, the findings from this study pave the way toward establishing a multi-faceted approach to CAD treatment. The dramatic results achieved by administering a readily available dietary supplement hold promise for patients who would otherwise continue to suffer the debilitating effects of this disease.

Reference:

Ken-ichi Hirano, Masahiro Higashi, Kenichi Nakajima, Remarkable regression of diffuse coronary atherosclerosis in patients with triglyceride deposit cardiomyovasculopathy, European Heart Journal, 2022;, ehac762, https://doi.org/10.1093/eurheartj/ehac762