Heart attacks are a leading cause of death in the United States. For many years, treatments have mainly focused on breaking down blood clots after they form.
While this can save lives, it often comes with the risk of serious side effects like dangerous bleeding.
Now, researchers at Georgia Tech may have found a safer way to stop blood clots before they even start. Their discovery centers on a drug that’s already available and affordable: N-acetyl cysteine, or NAC.
This medicine is already used to treat people who overdose on acetaminophen (paracetamol), but it may soon have another life-saving use—preventing heart attacks and strokes.
Because NAC is already approved for other uses, this new treatment could become available much sooner than brand-new drugs still waiting for approval.
In a study published in the journal Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology, scientists showed that NAC can completely stop blood clots from forming in lab tests. This is exciting news, especially for people who have already had a heart attack and are at risk of having another.
To understand how NAC works, it helps to know how blood clots form. When an artery is injured, the body forms a clot to stop bleeding. One key protein involved is called von Willebrand factor (VWF).
Normally, this protein is curled up and inactive. But when the body senses damage, VWF uncoils, becomes sticky, and attracts platelets—blood cells that clump together to form clots.
This process is useful for stopping bleeding, but when clots form inside healthy arteries, they can block blood flow and cause heart attacks or strokes.
Most current medications work by stopping platelets from clumping. While they help prevent clots, they also raise the risk of bleeding. Dr. David Ku, the study’s lead researcher, says this is a difficult trade-off. Doctors want to prevent clots without causing harmful bleeding.
That’s why NAC is such a promising option. NAC works by stopping the VWF protein before it unravels. It doesn’t interfere with platelets directly, so it may avoid the bleeding risk. Earlier studies looked at NAC as a way to break down clots after they formed, but this new study focused on preventing clots from forming at all.
The research team used a model that mimics a narrowed artery, like what happens during a heart attack. When they added NAC, no blood clots formed.
The next step was testing it in mice, and the results were just as good: NAC stopped clots and didn’t cause bleeding. Even more promising, NAC kept protecting the arteries for six hours after it had already left the bloodstream.
This means that NAC might be especially useful right after someone has had a heart attack. An injection of NAC could help protect them during the critical hours that follow. It might also be taken daily in pill form to help prevent future heart attacks and strokes.
The team believes NAC could also help with other clot-related problems, like embolisms. Since NAC is already in use and has a strong safety record, it might become available as a heart-protective treatment much faster than most new drugs.
The researchers now hope to begin clinical trials in humans. If successful, people at risk of heart disease could soon have access to a safer and more effective way to prevent blood clots and protect their hearts.
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