Prensa. voanews.com
Someday,
your immune system may be pressed into service to fight heart disease.
Researchers have discovered that a simple sugar can stimulate immune system
“clean up” cells to reduce disease-causing plaque in arteries. Marcophages are
the garbage men of the body. These immune system cells mop up cellular toxins
and debris that are produced through cells' normal functioning.
But
scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis wondered,
what if macrophages could be pressed into service to eliminate or degrade the
accumulation of plaque as well? The fatty substance collects inside blood
vessels and is a leading cause of heart disease and stroke.
Cardiology
researcher Babak Razani has pondered that possibility. "If you, you could
imagine this, that you could somehow manipulate it to rev it up, to stimulate
its function, then you could make a macrophage into a super-macrophage, one
that’s really stimulated to degrade."
In a
two-part study published in the journal Nature Communications, Razani and
colleagues described how they manipulated and activated a genetic molecule
called TFEB that goes into the nucleus of macrophages, supercharging their
housekeeping skills inside cells.
Researchers
then showed that a simple sugar, called trehalose, stimulated macrophages in
the same way. In experiments with mice prone to atherosclerotic plaques,
injection of the sugar molecule decreased plaque size by 30 percent.
"So
that’s what we found here," Razani reports, "that this simple,
natural compound, that is very safe, could be very atherogenic as therapy for
cardiovascular disease." In their unaltered state, macrophages try to fix
damaged arteries by cleaning up cellular waste, including misshapen proteins,
excess fat and dysfunction cellular structures called organelles.
But
Razani says they eventually become overwhelmed by the task in people with
atherosclerotic plaques, contributing to the debris problem that leads to
inflammation and more disease. Razani said supercharging macrophages with
trehalose, so they resist damage and are able to continue their housekeeping
function, offers a potential treatment for plaques, in addition to
cholesterol-lowering drugs.
Because
it’s a natural substance found in yeast, mushrooms and crustaceans, Razani said
trehalose is completely safe. Investigations found the sugar is broken down and
doesn’t work when swallowed. Trehalose reduced the size of arterial plaques
only when injected into mice. Other sugars did not have any effect. So the
challenge for researchers now is to find a way to turn trehalose into a form
that is effective in humans to fight heart disease and possibly other health
conditions like fatty liver disease and diabetes.