Protein Marker Doesnt Cause Heart Disease, Researchers Locate
Doctors are looking for new ways to detect and treat heart disease, the biggest killer globally according to the World Health Organization. The illness is caused by atherosclerosis, a buildup of plaque and fatty acids on the walls of arteries. The worsening of the disease involves inflammation, and research has focused on C-reactive protein, or CRP, a marker of inflammation.
Drugmakers developing treatments that target CRP might be “barking up the wrong treatment tree,” said the authors of the study to be published in tomorrows Journal of the American Medical Association. The focus on CRP sharpened last year after a study showed AstraZeneca Plcs cholesterol-lowering drug Crestor could prevent heart attacks, stroke or deaths in patients with elevated levels of CRP and normal cholesterol.
“Some researchers thought C-reactive protein would be a good molecule to target, as raised levels of this protein in the blood are associated with increased risk of coronary heart disease,” said the authors, led by Paul Elliott, from the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health at Imperial College in London. “However, our research suggests that the association may not be causal, so attempts to target this protein to reduce the risk of the disease are unlikely to be fruitful.”
Hidden Pool
Doctors traditionally rely on factors such as blood pressure, cholesterol levels, smoking, obesity and diabetes to spot people in danger of developing cardiovascular disease. Many seemingly healthy people have heart attacks and strokes each year, however. Doctors may not be able to identify a hidden pool of at-risk patients by looking for high levels of inflammation, as studies have previously suggested.
The researchers compared data from different studies showing the association between coronary heart disease and those with variations in the gene that codes for CRP. They looked at 28,112 people with the disease and 100,823 people without the disease.
“This suggests that C-reactive protein does not cause coronary heart disease,” they said. “However, interest still remains in whether C-reactive protein is a useful marker of disease risk.”
A study in the Dec. 20, 2006, New England Journal of Medicine found that CRP added little to the current approach for reducing heart disease risk.