Why some cancer and heart disease drugs cause vascular disease

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Understanding Blood Vessels

Blood vessels are like highways in our bodies. They carry oxygen and nutrients to all the different parts of our body, just like trucks carry goods to different cities. But blood vessels do more than just carry things around.

They help to keep our bodies healthy and functioning properly. Just like highways need to be maintained, blood vessels also need to be kept in good condition.

To do this, our blood vessels use instructions from our genes. Genes are like the blueprint of our body. They tell our bodies how to work and what to do.

One important set of genes that our blood vessels use is called the Delta-Notch signaling pathway.

This pathway helps to keep our blood vessels in a resting or “inactive” state when they’re not needed to grow or repair.

Medications for Blood Vessels

In some diseases, like heart problems or cancer, the blood vessels need to grow more than usual. This process is called angiogenesis.

Over the years, scientists have created drugs to help control angiogenesis. Some of these drugs affect the Delta-Notch pathway.

These drugs have been very helpful in controlling diseases. For example, they can stop tumors from growing by preventing the creation of new blood vessels.

They can also help in conditions where the tissue doesn’t have enough blood supply, like in certain heart diseases, by encouraging new blood vessels to grow.

However, there’s a problem. These drugs can also hurt the blood vessels in other parts of the body, especially the liver and the heart.

This side effect has made doctors and patients less interested in using these drugs.

The Mystery of Vascular Toxicity

For a long time, scientists thought that this side effect, known as vascular toxicity, was caused by the drugs making the blood vessels grow too much.

This overgrowth could lead to the formation of tumors or other abnormal growths in the blood vessels.

A group of scientists at the Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Cardiovasculares (CNIC) wanted to understand this better. They used special tools and techniques to study mice and found something surprising.

The Real Cause of Vascular Toxicity

The leader of the group, Rui Benedito, said that they found out the real cause of vascular toxicity. It’s not because of too much growth of the blood vessels.

Instead, the drugs cause changes in the structure of the blood vessels that stop the blood from flowing properly.

The team found that this happened even when they stopped the blood vessels from growing too much.

This means that the abnormal growth and the genes associated with angiogenesis are not the real cause of the problem.

Finding a Solution

The first author of the study, Macarena Fernández Chacón, said that they also found a potential solution to this problem.

By studying different genes and drugs, they discovered new ways to control angiogenesis without changing the structure of the blood vessels in other organs.

This could mean that in the future, we could have drugs that can control angiogenesis without causing vascular toxicity.

The Importance of This Research

This research is very important. It not only helps us to understand how our blood vessels work but also can help doctors to choose the best and safest way to control angiogenesis.

This could be a big step forward in treating diseases like heart problems and cancer.

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The study was published in Nature Cardiovascular Research.

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