For more than a hundred years, heart attacks have been the leading cause of death in the United States.
While many medicines can help break up blood clots after they form, there is now a new hope—preventing the clots before they start. Scientists at Georgia Tech have found that a common and low-cost drug already used in hospitals could do just that.
The drug is called N-acetyl cysteine, or NAC. Doctors have used it for a long time to treat people who take too much acetaminophen, also known as Tylenol.
But now, researchers have discovered that NAC might have another important use. It can stop blood clots from forming, and it does so without raising the risk of dangerous bleeding, a common problem with other blood-thinning drugs.
Blood clots can be very dangerous. They can block blood flow to the heart or brain and cause heart attacks, strokes, or even sudden death. These clots form when tiny cells in the blood, called platelets, stick together. One protein that helps them do this is called von Willebrand factor, or VWF.
This protein is normally rolled up tight like a ball of yarn. But when blood vessels are damaged, the protein unrolls and becomes sticky. This allows it to trap platelets and start building a clot.
Many current drugs target the platelets directly to stop them from sticking. However, this makes it hard for the blood to clot when it needs to, like when someone gets a cut. This can lead to too much bleeding, which is a serious side effect.
Professor David Ku, who led the study at Georgia Tech, explained the problem. He said, “We can give you a drug that might help prevent another heart attack, but it could also cause a lot of bleeding.”
So, the research team tried a different idea. Instead of going after the platelets, they focused on the VWF protein. If they could stop VWF from becoming sticky, then clots might never start forming.
That’s where NAC comes in. The team found that NAC can break the links that hold the VWF protein together when it unrolls. When these links are broken, the protein can’t trap platelets, and no clot forms.
To test this idea, they used a special device that copies how blood flows through narrow arteries, which is where clots usually form. NAC completely stopped clots in this test.
They also tested it in mice and saw the same result. Even better, NAC’s effects lasted for six hours, even after the drug itself had mostly left the bloodstream.
This could be a big step forward for treating people at high risk of heart attacks. Right now, these patients are given strong blood thinners, which can cause serious bleeding. But a simple shot of NAC could give the same protection with fewer risks.
In the future, people who are at risk of heart attacks or strokes might take NAC every day as a pill to keep their blood vessels healthy. Because NAC is already used safely for other treatments, it could become available for this new use faster than a brand-new drug.
Researchers hope to start clinical trials soon. If everything goes well, this could be a major breakthrough for millions of people. It could prevent deadly clots without the dangers that come with current treatments. For now, this finding offers new hope: a way to stop heart attacks before they begin.
If you care about heart health, please read studies about top 10 foods for a healthy heart, and how to eat right for heart rhythm disorders.
For more health information, please see recent studies about how to eat your way to cleaner arteries, and salt and heart health: does less really mean more?
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