Heart disease is the leading cause of death in many parts of the world. In the United States, it’s responsible for about one in every four deaths. One dangerous form of heart disease is coronary artery disease, which happens when plaque builds up inside the arteries and blocks blood flow to the heart. This can lead to heart attacks and strokes.
Scientists are always looking for better ways to understand, prevent, and treat this disease. Now, researchers at the University of Virginia Health have made a discovery that could lead to new treatments by focusing on a surprising source: the cells that line our blood vessels.
These cells, called smooth muscle cells, normally play a protective role. They help the blood vessels stay strong and flexible, and they can form a covering over plaque in the arteries to stop it from breaking apart and causing clots.
But in some people with heart disease, these same cells seem to do the opposite—they actually make the disease worse by encouraging plaque to grow.
This puzzling behavior has raised an important question: why would these helpful cells start doing harm?
To find out, Dr. Mete Civelek and his research team, including doctoral student Noah Perry, studied smooth muscle cells taken from heart transplant donors. They looked at the genes in these cells to figure out what might be causing the harmful changes.
Their study found something unexpected. It appears that problems with how these cells use certain sugars and nitrogen might be to blame.
Specifically, the way the cells process glycogen—a sugar the body stores for energy—and nitrogen-related molecules seems to affect how the cells behave. If this process goes wrong, the cells might switch from protecting the arteries to damaging them.
One sugar in particular, called mannose, caught the researchers’ attention. Early results suggest that mannose might play a role in these harmful changes, although more research is needed to fully understand how.
Why does this matter? Because if scientists can pinpoint exactly what causes smooth muscle cells to become harmful, they might be able to stop it. That could lead to entirely new ways to treat or even prevent coronary artery disease—especially in people who don’t respond well to current medications.
Dr. Civelek says that while drugs like statins (which lower cholesterol) and blood pressure medications are helpful, they aren’t enough to fully protect everyone. Finding new targets for treatment is essential.
The research team—including Perry, Diana Albarracin, and Redouane Aherrahrou—is continuing their work to explore these findings in more detail. Their hope is that by better understanding the basic science behind heart disease, they can help create treatments that work more effectively for more people.
In the meantime, there are still many proven steps you can take to protect your heart. Eating a healthy diet, exercising regularly, not smoking, and managing stress all make a big difference. Studies have also shown that certain nutrients, like vitamin D and vitamin K, may help lower the risk of heart disease by reducing inflammation and improving blood vessel health.
This new study, published in Circulation: Genomic and Precision Medicine, adds an important piece to the puzzle of heart disease. By learning more about how and why blood vessel cells go from helpful to harmful, scientists are getting closer to unlocking better treatments—and giving hope to millions of people at risk for heart attacks and strokes.
If you care about heart health, please read studies about how eating eggs can help reduce heart disease risk, and Vitamin K2 could help reduce heart disease risk.
For more information about heart health, please see recent studies about how to remove plaques that cause heart attacks, and results showing a new way to prevent heart attacks, strokes.
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