OT: New Drug Rapidly Unclogs Arteries

[Guest guest]

At 05:49 PM 11/8/2003 -0800, you wrote:

>First I've heard of this .. sounds like a pretty good discovery.

>

>http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/news/fullstory_14522.html

 

Hi Butch, everyone:

 

Yes, I heard about this the other day on the news. Amazing discovery.

Here's what I remember from the newscast, which is more than is in the story:

 

A few decades ago, scientists discovered a group of people in a rural area

of Italy that had no heart disease. Thinking it was a genetic anomaly, they

made tests and found that they had a different kind of HDL (good

cholesterol, the kind you want a high number of in your system).

 

They synthesized that form of HDL. Gave it to people. Shocked by the

results when they came in. Darn stuff dissolved arterial cholesterol/plaque

within SIX weeks of treatment.

 

I call it Roto-Rooter for the masses :-)

 

Now, from the dim recesses of my mind, I remember when the original report

from Italy came out -- I think it focused on people in a town called

Rosario or Rosetto. They outlived all their neighbors and ate the same diet

(which did have a lot of milk products and other cloggy factors.)

 

Nice to still be alive to see the results of that discovery come out, and

hope I get to use some because of my semi-SAD WOE* (I like to think the

olive oil and herbs and veggies and fruit offset the corned beef, LOL.)

 

*Standard American Diet - Way of Eating

 

http://member.newsguy.com/~herblady

[Guest guest]

OK, here's an article on the new drug from the Miami Herald. I'm cutting

and pasting it because they delete articles after a few days. I hope it

doesn't tempt people to start shoveling down pork chops and milkshakes!

 

Posted on Wed, Nov. 05, 2003 story:

 

New 'good' cholesterol can unclog arteries

An artificial type of cholesterol 'is opening a new door' for

cardiologists. It shrinks arterial blockages and could lead to new

heart-disease drugs.

BY ROB STEIN

Washington Post Service

 

Method found to unclog arteries

 

A synthetic form of ''good cholesterol'' has been shown to quickly shrink

blockages clogging coronary arteries, offering for the first time the

possibility of a drug that could actually rapidly reverse heart disease,

researchers reported Tuesday.

 

In a small, preliminary study, the laboratory-made substance, which mimics

a type of cholesterol discovered in a group of surprisingly healthy

villagers in rural Italy, significantly reduced in just six weeks the

amount of plaque narrowing arteries of heart attack and chest pain

patients, the researchers reported.

 

Because the approach attacks the underlying source of many heart attacks,

the results could mark a milestone in the search for new ways to treat the

nation's No. 1 killer, researchers said.

 

''For the first time, we've shown that you can reverse coronary disease

with drug therapy in a matter of weeks,'' said Steven E. Nissen, a

cardiologist at the Cleveland Clinic who coordinated the nationwide study.

``We really have, for the first time, the opportunity to attack this

disease at its fundamental basis. It's a paradigm shift. It's opening a new

door.''

 

JUST 47 PATIENTS

 

Nissen and other researchers cautioned that the study involved only 47

patients, and further studies are needed to confirm the findings, fully

evaluate the drug's safety and determine whether the treatment actually

cuts the risk of heart attacks and strokes.

 

''It's extremely preliminary,'' said Susan Bennett, clinical director of

the George Washington University Hospital Women's Heart Program, speaking

on behalf of the American Heart Association. ``But it is very intriguing.''

 

Regardless of whether this particular drug eventually offers a practical,

effective treatment, other experts said the study has opened up an entirely

new way to approach treating atherosclerosis, known commonly as hardening

of the arteries.

 

''This is the first true test of the concept that specifically targeting

HDL, the good cholesterol, can impact plaque and atherosclerosis in

humans,'' said Daniel J. Rader, director of preventive cardiology at the

University of Pennsylvania, who wrote an editorial accompanying the new

study in today's Journal of the American Medical Association.

 

Scientists have long known that there are two forms of cholesterol: One is

low-density lipoprotein (LDL), which is the ''bad cholesterol'' because it

accumulates inside artery walls, causing the vessels to narrow and setting

the stage for heart attacks and strokes. The other is high-density

lipoprotein (HDL), called the ''good cholesterol'' because it protects

against heart disease.

 

About 30 years ago, researchers discovered a group of about 40 people

living in the small rural northern Italian town of Limone Sul Garda who had

a surprisingly low rate of heart disease despite their extremely low HDL

levels. Scientists determined that their HDL was slightly unusual, raising

the possibility that it provided unusually powerful protection against

heart disease.

 

ENGINEERED HDL

 

Esperion Therapeutics Inc. of Ann Arbor, Mich., developed a genetically

engineered form of this version of HDL, dubbed ApoA-I Milano, and showed

that it reduced plaque inside arteries of laboratory animals. The company

asked Nissen to test it in people.

 

''When the statisticians delivered the data to me, I fell off my chair,''

Nissen said. ``We've run across something that can literally clear out the

plaque in just a few weeks. That's unprecedented.''

 

Rader agreed. ``I don't think anyone thought you could induce regression in

six weeks -- that's the single most surprising thing about this study.'

-----http://member.newsguy.com/~herblady

[Guest guest]

First I've heard of this .. sounds like a pretty good discovery.

 

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/news/fullstory_14522.html