Targeting the inflammatory process may be a new way to treat heart disease

Identification of novel players linking inflammasome activation to cardiovascular disease

Inflammation plays a part in the development of many heart and circulatory diseases, including atherosclerosis, where arteries become ‘furred up’ and narrowed, and post-ischaemic injury, when tissue is damaged because of a lack of oxygen supply, e.g. during a heart attack or stroke. The ‘inflammasome’ is a large mixture of proteins in the cell that helps to control inflammation. As the inflammasome is activated when heart and circulatory diseases develop, regulating this activation could be a new way to treat these diseases. Dr Xuan Li, at the University of Cambridge, has been awarded an Intermediate Basic Science Research Fellowship to identify the most important proteins in the inflammation involved in many heart and circulatory diseases. She hopes this will reveal more about how certain diseases develop and uncover potential targets for new treatments. The Cambridge team have already conducted early experiments in cells to identify which proteins to study in more detail - one of these is a protein called MARK4. Dr Li now wants to work out what this protein does in cells and in mouse models of atherosclerosis and post-ischaemic injury.