Too Little is Being Done to Move the Needle on Cardiovascular Disease
Given that cardiovascular disease is the largest cause of human mortality, and the present dominant strategy of lowering LDL-cholesterol in the bloodstream has failed to change that fact, it is perhaps surprising to find that there exist only minor, exploratory attempts to break new ground and move beyond this approach. There is not great program of discovery, no sense of urgency, only small groups occasionally trying something new every few years or so. More generally, research into novel ways to address aging and age-related disease is far from adequately supported, given the great burden of suffering and mortality that accompanies old age.
It is widely accepted that atherosclerosis, a primary driver of cardiovascular disease (CVD), is primarily caused by inflammation at the endovascular level, yet most treatments fail to address their cause. Aging itself is a major independent risk factor for CVD, which remains one of the leading causes of disability and death. As shown in different studies, age-related arterial dysfunction was found in the absence of conventional cardiovascular risk factors, suggesting that age-related arterial dysfunction is a primary effect of advancing age. This phenomenon persists despite best efforts to promote healthy lifestyle and pharmacological treatments. Additionally, it is worth noting that as much as 20% of individuals who develop coronary heart disease lack conventional risk factors. This suggests there are still unaddressed factors missing from the current approach to patient management. Furthermore, another study showed that up to 70% of individuals who experienced myocardial infarctions were classified as low risk based on conventional 10-year coronary heart disease risk screening.
Recent evidence suggests that three finite physiological responses to numerous insults exist in the human body, attributing to the pathophysiology of CVD: oxidative stress, inflammation, and ultimately vascular dysfunction. This process, often referred to as vascular aging or "inflammaging", encompasses the complex interplay of molecular and cellular events like immune dysregulation associated with aging and the acceleration of age-related diseases. Consequently, it is essential to consider certain overlooked and novel factors that contribute to aging as a process also contributing to the origin of traditional risk factors. For example, the gut microbiome - a complex ecosystem of organisms located throughout our body organs, including the gastrointestinal tract, serving as a transducer of environmental signals to the rest of the body - contributing either to promoting or reducing systemic inflammation and age-related cardiovascular disease risk. Understanding such factors is needed to be able to address them.
Would be nice if the aging research community addressed this newfound problem of nanoparticle and microparticles of plastic that have been found in arterial plaques.
@Reason
It seems that your cholesterol degradation platform is the most promising development recently.
It's not surprising at all. With capitalism the profit motive only serves to provide incentives which favor treatment over cure, not to mention "safer" investments into tried and true efforts rather than the riskier types of R&D that go out on a limb. That in addition to the system underlying the scientific community being one of fear and staying within the lines. It's plaguing not just medical science but physics as well. I used to think capitalism would get us to some super advanced level of civilization but now I think we need to squash what has clearly demonstrated itself to be an incredibly misleading myth.
@ Nathan McKaskle. Perhaps what capitalism will deliver is a very powerful AI that will massively increase the pace of drug discovery.