Promising Effect of Ancient Medicine On Newly Discovered Cardiovascular Risk Factor: Studies Unravels

A recent study in Nature Medicine reveals clonal hematopoiesis as a new risk factor for atherosclerosis, a key contributor to cardiovascular diseases. Additionally, a second study published in the European Heart Journal by the same team suggests that colchicine, an ancient drug, alleviates the effects of clonal hematopoiesis associated with acquired mutations in the TET2 gene.

In addition to well-established cardiovascular risk factors like high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, obesity, smoking, and lack of physical activity, clonal hematopoiesis must now be included. This condition, caused by acquired mutations in blood stem cells, has been identified as contributing to increased cardiovascular risk.

An adult produces hundreds of thousands of blood cells daily, which leads to the accumulation of DNA mutations due to the high rate of cell division. These are somatic mutations, meaning they are acquired rather than inherited. While these mutations were previously suggested as a potential risk factor for cardiovascular disease, the precise nature of their relationship was not well understood.

A recent study clarifies that somatic mutations related to clonal hematopoiesis are connected to the development of atherosclerosis. Additionally, the level of atherosclerosis does not affect the growth of mutated blood cells.

The second study highlights that mutations in the TET2 gene are among the most well-defined mutations associated with clonal hematopoiesis. It finds that the negative impact of TET2 mutations on cardiovascular health can be mitigated by using the anti-inflammatory drug colchicine.

The research team showed that colchicine treatment in animals with TET2 mutations slows the progression of atherosclerosis to a rate comparable to that observed in animals without these mutations.

Reference: Díez-Díez, M., Ramos-Neble, B.L., de la Barrera, J. et al. Unidirectional association of clonal hematopoiesis with atherosclerosis development. Nat Med (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-024-03213-1

María A Zuriaga, Zhi Yu, Nuria Matesanz, Buu Truong, Beatriz L Ramos-Neble, Mari C Asensio-López, Md Mesbah Uddin, Tetsushi Nakao, Abhishek Niroula, Virginia Zorita, Marta Amorós-Pérez, Rosa Moro, Benjamin L Ebert, Michael C Honigberg, Domingo Pascual-Figal, Pradeep Natarajan, José J Fuster, Colchicine prevents accelerated atherosclerosis in TET2-mutant clonal haematopoiesis, European Heart Journal, 2024;, ehae546, https://doi.org/10.1093/eurheartj/ehae546