Heart attacks have long been the leading cause of death in the United States. For many years, most treatments have focused on breaking down blood clots that have already formed, often with the risk of side effects like excessive bleeding.
However, researchers at Georgia Tech have found a promising new way to prevent blood clots from forming in the first place. Their discovery involves using an existing, affordable drug, which could help patients avoid blood clots without increasing the risk of dangerous bleeding.
The drug in question, N-acetyl cysteine (NAC), is already widely available and is commonly used to treat acetaminophen (paracetamol) overdose. Now, scientists believe it could play a key role in preventing heart attacks, strokes, and other conditions caused by blood clots.
Since NAC is already approved for other medical uses, this new application could become available much sooner than if it were a completely new drug awaiting approval.
In their recent study, published in Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology, the research team showed how NAC completely stops blood clots from forming.
This discovery could be especially important for patients who have already had a heart attack and are at high risk of having another. In the future, NAC might also be used to prevent primary heart attacks, strokes, and other clot-related issues in high-risk individuals.
How Blood Clots Form
When an artery is damaged, the body quickly responds by forming a blood clot to stop bleeding. A key player in this process is a protein called von Willebrand factor (VWF).
Under normal conditions, VWF is coiled up and inactive, but when it unravels, it becomes sticky and grabs platelets, the blood cells that form clots.
This stickiness is essential for stopping bleeding but can become dangerous if it leads to unwanted blood clots inside blood vessels. These clots can block blood flow and cause heart attacks, strokes, or other severe health problems.
Most current treatments for preventing blood clots focus on stopping platelets from clumping together. However, these drugs often come with a significant risk: they can cause excessive bleeding.
According to David Ku, a professor at Georgia Tech and a lead researcher on the project, “Doctors are stuck in a difficult position. We can give you a drug that might help prevent another heart attack, but it could also cause a lot of bleeding.”
Ku and his team wanted to find a solution that would prevent clots without the bleeding risk. They turned to NAC, a drug already proven safe in other medical contexts.
How NAC Works
NAC works by breaking down the VWF protein before it has a chance to unravel and form blood clots. Previous research had explored using NAC to break down clots after they had already formed, but Ku’s team took a different approach: they aimed to stop clot formation entirely.
They chose NAC because it has a strong safety record, making it a good candidate for repurposing. Christopher Bresette, a postdoctoral researcher on the team, noted, “Using an existing drug for a new purpose can speed up the process of helping patients.”
At Georgia Tech’s Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience, the researchers tested blood flow through a model simulating a narrowed artery — the type of condition that often leads to heart attacks or strokes.
They found that NAC completely prevented the formation of blood clots in this model.
The next step was testing NAC in mice, and the results were promising: NAC stopped blood clots from forming without increasing the risk of bleeding.
Even more impressively, NAC continued to protect the arteries for six hours after it had left the bloodstream, providing lasting benefits.
Future Applications
The researchers believe NAC could be especially beneficial for people who have already had a heart attack. These patients are at high risk of having another heart attack soon after the first, and an intravenous (IV) injection of NAC could help lower this immediate risk.
Over the long term, NAC might be used as a daily pill to reduce the overall chance of heart attacks, strokes, and other conditions caused by blood clots.
The potential uses for NAC are far-reaching. In addition to preventing heart attacks, it could be used to stop embolisms and other blockages in blood vessels.
The researchers hope to conduct clinical trials to further test NAC’s effectiveness in humans and seek FDA approval for its use in preventing heart attacks and related conditions.
This breakthrough could mean that patients at risk of heart attacks or strokes may soon have access to a safe, affordable treatment to prevent dangerous blood clots.
Since NAC is already widely available and has a well-established safety profile, it could start benefiting patients much sooner than newly developed drugs.
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