Scientists Identify Mutations In Single Gene To Protect Against Heart Attacks
Scientists Identify Mutations In Single Gene To Protect Against Heart Attacks
Major studies conducted by leading research groups published independently have identified mutations in a single gene to protect against heart attacks by keeping levels of triglycerides very low for a lifetime. Triglycerides are a kind of fat in the blood.
These findings are going to push the development of a new class of drugs that replicate the effect of the mutations. This offers the growth of a new class of drugs to fend off heart diseases in decades, according to the experts. Statins which reduce the LDL cholesterol have been identified as the other cause of heart disease. Research since the 1980s has been focused on lowering heart disease risk but recent findings have yielded concrete results.
There have been no new major drugs for lowering heart disease risk. Experts have cautioned that drug development will take a long time and there is no assurance that the new treatment will work. But in the current scenario, this new discovery offers a new ray of hope.
Heart attacks are the leading cause of death in developed as well as developing nations. Though statins have been found to be effective in reducing heart attack risk, users often have high levels of triglycerides and may go on to suffer from heart attacks. The results of the new study are a good news for combating heart disease, according to Dr. Daniel J Rader who is the director of the Preventive Cardiovascular Medicine and Lipid Clinic at the University of Pennsylvania.
Efforts are on to find something beyond statins. People have been put on high dose statins, but there have been efforts for some time to go beyond this and find more workable solutions for warding off heart attacks. A triglyceride lowering drug may be the result of these new research studies.
The discovery was announced in 2008 in a smaller study conducted by University of Maryland's Medical School. 20 Mish people were found to have this mutation that destroys a gene APOC3 which plays a key role in triglyceride metabolism, as against 1 in 150 Americans generally.
Triglycerides have puzzled researchers though they have been measured along with cholesterol in blood tests. They have often been found to be high in those suffering from heart diseases. Clinical trials of drugs have been conducted by researchers to combat high triglyceride levels. But the studies funded by the National Institutes of Health and the EU provide detailed information that triglycerides are an important cause of heart attacks.
Harvard and MIT were the American team to discover that people with genetic predisposition to higher triglyceride levels had more heart attacks as compared to those with lower triglyceride levels. Copenhagen University Hospital researchers led by Dr. Anne Tybjaerg-Hansen used data from 75,725 subjects to find out if low triglyceride levels were linked to reduced heart attack risks. Both groups have found positive proof that high triglyceride are a cause of heart attack. Now the race is on to develop the drugs which can counter it.
