Heart attacks have been the number one cause of death in the United States for over 100 years. Most treatments work by breaking apart blood clots after they form, but a new discovery from researchers at Georgia Tech may change how we prevent heart attacks in the first place.
The team has found that a low-cost, easy-to-get medicine called N-acetyl cysteine (NAC) can stop blood clots from forming entirely. Even better, it does this without raising the risk of dangerous bleeding—a common side effect of many current blood-thinning drugs.
Blood clots form when a protein in the blood called von Willebrand factor (VWF) gets activated. Under normal conditions, VWF stays curled up and harmless. But when blood vessels are damaged or become narrowed, VWF stretches out and becomes sticky.
This causes platelets in the blood to stick together and form clots. While this is helpful to stop bleeding from injuries, it can be dangerous when it leads to heart attacks or strokes.
Dr. David Ku, a professor at Georgia Tech, explained that the current drugs used to prevent clots can be risky because they stop the clotting system completely. “We can give you a drug that might help prevent another heart attack, but it could also cause a lot of bleeding,” he said. That’s why this new finding is so important.
NAC targets VWF directly and keeps it from turning into the sticky form that causes clots. In lab tests that mimicked how blood flows through narrowed arteries, NAC successfully stopped clots from forming.
The researchers also tested NAC in mice and found the same results. Surprisingly, the clot-blocking effect lasted up to six hours even after the drug had cleared from the bloodstream.
NAC is already approved for other uses. It’s commonly given to patients who have overdosed on acetaminophen (a common pain reliever). Since doctors already know NAC is safe for humans, it could be fast-tracked for use in treating heart disease. This is a big advantage, since new drugs often take years to pass safety tests.
Dr. Christopher Bresette, a researcher on the team, noted that using an old drug for a new purpose can help get it to patients much faster.
In this case, NAC could be used in emergency rooms for people who’ve just had a heart attack, possibly preventing a second, more dangerous one. In the future, it could even be taken as a daily pill by people who are at high risk of heart problems.
Besides heart attacks, NAC could help prevent other conditions caused by blood clots, such as strokes, embolisms, or blockages in small blood vessels. Because NAC doesn’t interfere with the body’s natural clotting system, it may be a safer option for many people.
The research team plans to move forward with human trials to confirm their findings and work toward getting approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). If successful, this could change how we treat and prevent heart attacks in the future.
This breakthrough offers hope for a safer and more effective way to reduce the risk of heart disease, which could save many lives.
If you care about heart health, please read studies that vitamin K helps cut heart disease risk by a third, and a year of exercise reversed worrisome heart failure.
For more health information, please see recent studies about supplements that could help prevent heart disease, stroke, and results showing this food ingredient may strongly increase heart disease death risk.
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