Heart disease remains one of the leading causes of death around the world, and coronary artery disease is one of the most common and dangerous forms of it.
In the United States alone, about one in every four deaths is linked to this disease. Coronary artery disease happens when fatty material called plaque slowly builds up inside the arteries that carry blood to the heart.
Over time, these arteries become narrow and stiff, making it harder for blood and oxygen to reach the heart. This can lead to chest pain, heart attacks, strokes, and other serious health problems.
Although doctors already use treatments such as cholesterol-lowering medicines, blood pressure control, and lifestyle changes to reduce risk, scientists still want to better understand how the disease develops inside the body.
Finding new causes may lead to new treatments that can prevent heart disease before it becomes severe.
Now, researchers from the University of Virginia Health have made an important discovery that may help scientists understand why heart disease becomes worse in some people.
The research was led by Dr. Mete Civelek from the University of Virginia School of Medicine. His team has been studying special cells inside blood vessel walls called smooth muscle cells.
These cells normally play a helpful role in the body. When plaque begins to collect inside arteries, smooth muscle cells can create a protective layer over the plaque. This layer is often called a cap.
The cap helps keep the plaque stable and lowers the chance that it will suddenly break apart. If plaque breaks open, it can block blood flow and cause a heart attack or stroke.
However, scientists noticed that these same smooth muscle cells do not always stay protective. In some situations, they seem to change their behavior. Instead of helping protect the artery, they may start helping plaque grow larger and more dangerous. Researchers have been trying to understand why this surprising change happens.
To investigate this mystery, a doctoral student named Noah Perry studied smooth muscle cells collected from heart transplant donors. The researchers closely examined the genes inside these cells to see what might cause the cells to switch from being helpful to harmful.
The study found that changes in the cells may be linked to the way the body handles nitrogen and stores sugar in a form called glycogen. Glycogen acts like stored energy for the body. Problems in these processes may affect how the smooth muscle cells behave inside blood vessels.
The team also discovered that a special sugar known as mannose may play an important role. Mannose is a natural sugar related to glucose, but scientists believe it may influence how cells function and communicate.
The researchers think mannose could be connected to the harmful transformation of smooth muscle cells. However, they say more studies are needed before they can fully confirm this connection.
This discovery is exciting because it opens a new direction for heart disease research. If scientists can learn exactly what causes smooth muscle cells to become harmful, they may be able to stop the process before dangerous plaque forms.
In the future, this could lead to new medicines or therapies that protect arteries and reduce the risk of heart attacks and strokes.
Dr. Civelek explained that heart disease affects millions of people across the world, and better treatments are still urgently needed. Current treatments help many people, but they do not completely stop the disease.
By learning more about how artery cells behave, scientists hope they can create smarter and more targeted therapies.
Other members of the research team included Diana Albarracin and Redouane Aherrahrou. Together, the team hopes their work will help doctors develop new ways to fight heart disease in the future.
Scientists also continue studying other possible ways to support heart health. Some earlier studies suggest that vitamin D may help reduce inflammation in the body, while other research has linked vitamin K with a lower risk of heart disease.
Researchers are also exploring how diet, exercise, sleep, and stress affect the heart over time.
Heart disease develops slowly over many years, which is why prevention and early treatment are so important. Discoveries like this one help scientists better understand the hidden changes happening inside blood vessels long before symptoms appear.
As research continues, doctors may one day be able to identify these dangerous cell changes early and stop heart disease before it becomes life-threatening.
If you care about heart health, please read studies that yogurt may help lower the death risks in heart disease, and coconut sugar could help reduce artery stiffness.
For more information about health, please see recent studies that Vitamin D deficiency can increase heart disease risk, and results showing vitamin B6 linked to lower death risk in heart disease.
The study was published in the journal Circulation: Genomic and Precision Medicine.
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