Taking on Atherosclerosis
According to the 2015 Lancet Global Burden of Disease Report, atherosclerosis causes 56 million deaths a year worldwide, and to combat this, Israeli researchers from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and Sheba Medical Center have developed a new method for treating atherosclerosis and preventing heart failure. The technique uses a clinical polymer that reduces plaque in the arteries and inflammation in the vascular system. The nanopolymer shows potential to prevent heart failure by reducing inflammation and plaque in the heart and blood vessels
The arteries are lined with a thin layer of cells called the endothelium, which maintains their shape and smoothness and maintains normal blood flow throughout the body. Atherosclerosis begins with damage to the endothelial cells and is caused by high blood pressure, smoking, or high cholesterol levels.
When endothelial cells are inflamed, they form molecules called “e-selectin”, which lead to the area of white blood cells (called monocytes) that cause plaque to build up in the arteries. “The polymer we developed, which is based on e-selectin, reduces existing plaque deposits and prevents the formation of additional plaque deposits and inflammation in the blood vessels, thus preventing arterial thrombosis, ischemia, myocardial infarction, and stroke,” says Professor Ayelet David of the Department of Biochemistry and Clinical Pharmacology at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.
The innovative nanopolymer has several advantages. First, it repairs damage already done to the arteries and strengthens the heart muscle. In addition, the polymer only focuses on the damaged tissues and does not damage healthy tissues, so it has no side effects. This is in contrast to statins, the leading drug group used for the treatment of atherosclerosis, which has several known side effects.
The new polymer, which was patented and is in a preclinical stage, was tested on mice and yielded positive results. In the study, which was submitted for publication, the researchers treated mice with atherosclerosis using four injections of the new biopolymer and evaluated the change in their arteries after four weeks.
“We were amazed by the results,” says Professor Jonathan Lior, director of the Vascular Research Institute at Sheba Medical Center and a lecturer in cardiology at Tel Aviv University. “The myocardial activity of the treated mice improved miraculously. They had less inflammation in their arteries, and the thickness of their arteries was significantly reduced.” “You can say that this is a first-of-its-kind result,” adds Professor Lior. Although there are several treatments for atherosclerosis today, none of them can reverse the damage that has already been done and improve the function of the heart muscle, as this polymer manages to do.”
“In the production of the polymer, we were able to achieve adhesion to non-selectin at a level of strength similar to that of antibodies. This may explain the high level of efficacy that we have seen,” adds Professor David. Professor David and her colleague Prof. Jonathan Lior believe that polymer therapy can also be effective for people suffering from diabetes, high blood pressure, and other age-related diseases. “In light of this, the new polymer therapy could have life-changing effects for millions of people,” the researchers say.
“We are now looking for a pharmaceutical company that will advance our polymer-based therapy to the next stages of drug development and eventually also [take it to] marketing,” says Dr. Ora Horowitz, senior Vice President of Business Development at Ben-Gurion Negev Technologies, the technology commercialization company of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. “We believe this treatment has the potential to help a huge number of people.”
