The Possibility of Using Proteins as a Treatment of Atherosclerosis

Abstract

Atherosclerosis is a type of heart disease in which most patients either have coronary disease or carotid disease. Patients with atherosclerosis have narrowed blood vessels due to the formation of plaque or the condensation of fat molecules in the blood. The death rate from atherosclerosis is not extremely high, but atherosclerosis can easily lead to fatal diseases like heart attack and stroke. Atherosclerosis can be prevented by keeping a healthy lifestyle and taking medicines, and severe cases can be treated with surgeries. Protein treatment is not widely used for the treatment of atherosclerosis, but some proteins like prosaposin and HMG-CoA display their essential role in the synthesis of plaque. Prosaposin affects the inflammation of macrophages in the cell by affecting mTOR and S6K1 signaling passageways. Inflammation is the root cause of atherosclerosis, and decreasing inflammation can lead to a decrease in plaque. HMG-CoA is another protein that can affect cholesterol synthesis, which is crucial in plaque formation. HMG-CoA reductase inhibitor, which can be called statin, blocks the HMG-CoA from functioning and decreases the rate of cholesterol formation. The possibility of using prosaposin and HMG-CoA as a protein treatment is proven, and future experiments could determine the method to apply the treatment in clinical trials.