Heart Stopping News : DNA Vaccine for Heart Attacks !!!!

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Hindustan Times, New Delhi. Relax, shot for the heart on waySamrat ChoudhuryNew Delhi, December 10, 2005 Don’t get off the treadmill just yet, but the news is that a vaccine to prevent heart attacks and strokes may be around the corner. Two scientists of Indian origin are leading international research groups that have developed vaccines for atherosclerosis, the disease that leads to deposit of cholesterol inside arteries — and often, to heart attacks and strokes. The vaccines

are currently being tested on animals and will be ready for human testing in about four years. Dr Vijay Kakkar, director of the Thrombosis Research Institute (TRI) in London, is the man who developed what is now known around the world as “low-dose heparin” therapy for combating Deep Vein Thrombosis. This treatment now saves over 300,000 lives a year. Dr Kakkar, who is currently in India to set up a branch of the TRI, told HT he has been working on a vaccine for atherosclerosis for the past 15 years. And that he is certain this disease is not merely the lifestyle disease it is made out to be. “We have been able to confirm that in addition to cholesterol and other lipids, infections with certain viruses and bacteria cause changes in blood vessels that enhance areas of localised thickness called atheroma,” he says. “The evidence we have is that this infection happens very early in life, usually around the age of 2-3 years.” Dr Kakkar’s team has

synthesized a unique DNA vaccine to prevent infection and the changes in blood vessels that lead to their thickening. This bi-functional antibody, which enhances the body’s immunity, is now being tested on animals. The clinical trials of the vaccine will begin in four to five years. A competing team — led by Dr Prediman K. Shah, director of the Cardiology and Atherosclerosis Research Centre at Cedars Sinai Medical Center, USA, and Dr Jan Nilsson of the University of Lund in Sweden — will also be conducting clinical trials of an atherosclerosis vaccine by then. Dr Shah, in an email interview from the US, wrote: “Our vaccine for atherosclerosis and heart disease is not based on the premise that infections cause atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease. It is an entirely different concept where we are exploring a vaccine against cholesterol.” According to him, “The body’s immune system recognises oxidised LDL cholesterol (the form of cholesterol found in

plaque) particles as foreign (an antigen) and mounts an immune attack against LDL, presumably to attenuate the damaging effects of LDL on the artery wall. We have taken this idea to develop a vaccine that could hyper-activate the body’s immune system to more aggressively neutralise the effects of LDL cholesterol.” His lab has shown that when experimental animals are immunised with these LDL related antigens, there is a significant reduction in the build up of cholesterol plaque inside the arteries along with a lessening of inflammation. “These proof of concept studies raise the possibility that a similar approach could be developed and tested on humans,” he writes. His group will begin human tests of their vaccine in 3-4 years. According to World Health Organisation data, coronary heart disease kills more than 7 million people each year, and strokes kill nearly 6 million. Most of these deaths are in developing countries. As Dr Shah

says, “The implications for global health are enormous if this concept works in humans as well as it does on experimental animals.” http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_1570496,0035.htm We have grasped the mystery of the atom and rejected the Sermon on the Mount. Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants. We know more about war than we know about peace, more about killing than we know about living. -- General Omar Bradley

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