Heart disease is still the number one cause of death in the United States.
For years, doctors have tried to reduce this risk by using medicines that lower cholesterol, control blood pressure, and help manage diabetes. But even with all these efforts, many people still suffer from heart attacks and strokes.
Now, scientists at the University of Michigan have found something new that could help explain why this happens. They discovered that a protein called suPAR, made by our immune system, may play a major role in causing heart disease.
This protein seems to make the arteries in our body harder and narrower, a condition known as atherosclerosis. When this happens, blood has a harder time flowing to the heart and brain, which can lead to serious health problems.
Atherosclerosis is a very common disease around the world. It affects more than a billion people and is one of the main reasons people have heart attacks or strokes. SuPAR stands for soluble urokinase plasminogen activator receptor.
It is made in the bone marrow and helps control how active the immune system is. In the past, researchers saw that people with high suPAR levels often had heart problems. But now, for the first time, scientists found that suPAR may actually cause those problems.
The researchers studied over 5,000 people who had no history of heart disease. They found that people with high suPAR levels were more likely to develop atherosclerosis, even if they didn’t have high cholesterol or high blood pressure. This means that suPAR may be harmful all on its own.
To learn more, the scientists looked at the genes of 24,000 people. They found a small change in a gene called PLAUR that controls how much suPAR the body makes. People with this gene change had more suPAR in their blood and were more likely to get atherosclerosis.
They also checked their results using a giant study from the UK called the UK Biobank, which includes data from 500,000 people. They found the same results there and in two other large studies. All of this showed that suPAR plays a direct role in heart disease.
To make sure their discovery was correct, the scientists did experiments on mice. They found that mice with high suPAR levels had more plaque in their arteries. These plaques can block blood and cause heart attacks or strokes. So, high suPAR doesn’t just go along with disease—it helps cause it.
This finding could change the way doctors treat heart disease. Current medicines like statins lower cholesterol but do not reduce suPAR. The research team is now trying to create a safe way to lower suPAR, which could help prevent heart disease in a new way.
This study may also explain why people with kidney disease often also have heart problems. Many patients with kidney disease have high suPAR levels. Since suPAR can affect both the heart and kidneys, this could be the reason the two diseases are connected.
These exciting results were published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation. If doctors can find a way to safely lower suPAR levels, it could bring new hope to millions of people around the world who are at risk of heart attacks and strokes.
This discovery shows how important it is to keep studying the immune system and its role in long-term diseases. It may also help doctors come up with new, personalized treatments to fight heart disease more effectively.
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.
