Looking for ways to prevent blood vessels from hardening

Evaluating the potential of targeting PKCα signalling to inhibit vascular calcification

Professor Ann Canfield and colleagues at the University of Manchester are looking for ways to prevent and treat the hardening of blood vessels, where blood vessels stiffen due to deposits of a bone-like material. This ‘calcification’ increases the risk of heart attacks and stroke, and poor diet, diabetes and chronic kidney diseases can make it worse. Currently we have no way to treat this condition. Professor Canfield has discovered a signalling pathway in the cells within blood vessels that can reduce the calcium deposits that lead to hardened blood vessels. She has recently discovered that a protein called PKCa is involved in this process. Professor Canfield suggests increasing levels PKCa could decrease vascular calcification. In this project, Professor Canfield will determine whether removing PKCa increases calcification in animals with diseased arteries and kidney disease. She wants to work out how this protein controls calcification, and whether increasing the levels of this protein prevents or reduces calcification. By understanding what effect PKCa has on blood vessel calcification, this research could reveal new ways to treat it and reduce the risk of heart attacks and strokes in people with heart and circulatory disease.