Heart disease link found
TROUBLE WITH TRIBBLES CAN CAUSE ILLNESS
SCIENTISTS have discovered cause of cardiovascular disease.
The international team, including researchers at the University of Leicester, found a kind of immune cell contributes towards the buildup of fatty deposits in arteries.
Some immune cells – macrophages – take up surplus cholesterol.
When this is present in excess, they mature into larger cholesterolladen cells known as foam cells which accumulate and cause blockages inside arteries.
The study showed for the first time that levels of the protein Tribbles-1 (TRIB1) inside macrophages controls the amount of cholesterol taken up by foam cells.
Higher levels of TRIB1 promoted arterial disease, while decreasing TRIB1 reduced disease.
The discovery could lead to a treatment. The study involved teams in the UK, Hungary and USA.
Professor Endre Kiss-Toth, who led the study, said: “The research
ahas not yet translated medical interventions.
“However we now have pre-clinical proof it would be beneficial to build on this research and see which patients with cardiovascular disease into novel would benefit from the development of treatments to manage their lipidladen foam cell formation”
Professor Alison Goodall from the Department of Cardiovascular Sciences at the University of Leicester, said: “We were delighted to be able to provide Professor Kiss-Toth with data from our large cohorts of human subjects, to demonstrate the links between TRIB1 and cholesterol uptake in humans”.