Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States, taking more lives than any other illness.
Doctors have made progress by treating high blood pressure, diabetes, and high cholesterol.
Medications like aspirin and statins have helped many people. Still, heart attacks and strokes remain common, like a fire that won’t go out despite all efforts to control it.
Now, researchers from the University of Michigan may have found a missing piece of the puzzle. They’ve discovered that a protein in the body, called suPAR, may play a major role in causing heart disease. This could explain why some people still get heart problems even when their other risk factors are treated.
suPAR stands for soluble urokinase plasminogen activator receptor. It’s a protein made in the bone marrow and acts like a thermostat for the immune system. In healthy amounts, suPAR helps regulate the body’s defenses. But when levels of this protein get too high, it may cause long-term inflammation that harms the body instead of helping it.
The researchers found that high suPAR levels can lead to a condition called atherosclerosis. This happens when the arteries—blood vessels that carry oxygen-rich blood from the heart—become hard and narrow due to buildup of fat and other materials. Atherosclerosis can reduce blood flow and lead to heart attacks and strokes.
To understand suPAR’s role in this process, the scientists first looked at health data from more than 5,000 people who didn’t have heart disease at the time. They discovered that those with higher suPAR levels were more likely to develop heart problems later on, even if they didn’t have high cholesterol or other common risk factors.
Next, they studied the genes of 24,000 people and found that some had a genetic variant that causes their bodies to produce more suPAR. These people were more likely to develop atherosclerosis. This same genetic link was confirmed in a much larger study of 500,000 people and in two other independent studies.
To dig deeper, the team also ran tests on mice. Mice with high suPAR levels developed more fatty plaques in their arteries than mice with normal levels. These results strongly suggest that suPAR is not just a warning sign of disease—it may actually be causing the damage.
This discovery is exciting because current treatments for heart disease, like cholesterol-lowering drugs, don’t affect suPAR levels. That means suPAR could be a new target for future medicines. Researchers are now trying to find safe ways to lower suPAR levels and reduce the risk of heart disease.
The study also highlights another important finding: suPAR is linked to kidney disease, which affects about 1 in 7 Americans. Many people with kidney disease also have heart disease, and the two often go hand in hand. The researchers believe suPAR may help explain this strong connection between the heart and kidneys.
This research, led by Dr. Salim Hayek and published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, shows how one protein can have wide-reaching effects on our health. It reminds us that the body’s systems are closely connected, and that understanding one part—like the immune system—can help us protect others, like the heart and kidneys.
By looking at suPAR, scientists may be opening the door to a whole new way of preventing and treating heart disease, offering hope to millions of people around the world.
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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