Heart disease is one of the biggest killers in the United States, causing about 1 out of every 4 deaths.
One kind of heart disease, called coronary artery disease, happens when the blood vessels that bring oxygen to the heart get blocked or narrow.
This can lead to chest pain, heart attacks, or even death. Scientists are working hard to understand this disease better and find new ways to stop it.
At the University of Virginia Health, a group of researchers is looking closely at a special type of cell in our blood vessels. These cells are called smooth muscle cells. They are usually helpful and work to keep our blood vessels strong and flexible.
But in people with coronary artery disease, these cells can sometimes change and do the opposite of what they are supposed to do.
Instead of helping, they might make the disease worse by building up plaque—a mix of fat, cholesterol, and other substances—that blocks the blood vessels.
Surprisingly, the same smooth muscle cells that can protect the blood vessel can also turn into the kind that builds this harmful plaque. The big question the scientists asked was: why do some of these cells change and become harmful?
One of the researchers, a PhD student named Noah Perry, studied smooth muscle cells taken from people who had heart transplants. He wanted to understand which genes or parts of the cell’s instructions are telling it to help or harm.
He found that when these cells stop helping and start causing damage, it may have something to do with how they process nitrogen and sugar in the body. The scientists think that a specific sugar called mannose might play a part in this switch.
Mannose is not something most people talk about every day, but it’s a kind of sugar the body uses. It might be causing problems in how cells use energy or how they store sugar. Perry’s research suggests that if we can find out what exactly triggers the smooth muscle cells to become harmful, doctors might be able to stop it from happening.
This could lead to new treatments that stop coronary artery disease before it gets worse. Right now, doctors use medicine to lower cholesterol and control blood pressure, and these help a lot. But millions of people still suffer from this disease, so finding new ways to treat it is very important.
The head of the research team, Dr. Mete Civelek, says they are continuing to study this mystery. Their goal is to one day help people live longer, healthier lives without the fear of heart attacks and blocked arteries.
This study is part of a larger effort to improve heart health. Other researchers are also looking at how vitamins like D and K might help reduce inflammation and prevent heart disease, or how our cooking methods might affect our risk for other serious problems, like vision loss. Scientists are even finding out which foods might help the brain stay sharp.
The full research paper can be found in the journal Circulation: Genomic and Precision Medicine.
If you care about heart health, please read studies about how drinking milk affects risks of heart disease , and herbal supplements could harm your heart rhythm.
For more information about heart health, please see recent studies about how espresso coffee affects your cholesterol level, and results showing Vitamin K2 could help reduce heart disease risk.
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