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posted by janrinok on Wednesday June 06 2018, @12:15AM   Printer-friendly
from the in-the-same-vein dept.

Submitted via IRC for SoyCow8093

For the first time, researchers are pointing out the influence of the internal clock on atherosclerosis. Their study gives an important indication on how the therapeutic approach can be improved.

Oliver Söhnlein researches molecular mechanisms underlying atherosclerosis at the Institute for Cardiovascular Prevention. During this disease, lipid deposits can form on the inner vascular wall of large arteries. Cells of the immune system travel from the blood to the damaged location and attract more and more cells via signaling substances until the immune reaction finally derails. Atherosclerotic inflammation develops over years; however, the recruitment of cells is subject to circadian rhythms as Söhnlein has proven in mouse models of atherosclerosis. "At certain times of the day, three times as many leukocytes travel to the center of arterial inflammation as it is the case for other times," says Söhnlein. This rhythmic migration pattern is about 12 hours phase shifted with the recruitment pattern observed in the microcirculation in small veins.

Precisely this shift between the two vascular systems is interesting from a therapeutic aspect. "The recruitment of white blood cells in the micro-circulation is important for acute infections such as for example a lung or bladder infection," explains Oliver Söhnlein. Ideally, the recruitment of immune cells is to be stopped for the atherosclerotic inflammation but not in the micro-circulation.

The researchers of LMU achieved just that with their work in an early stage of atherosclerosis: On the one hand, they identified the molecular mechanism how rhythmic arterial leukocyte migration is controlled. On the other hand, timed inhibition of this pathway centered on the chemokine CCL2, they were able to stop the recruitment only into atherosclerotic areas but did not affect microvascular leukocyte migration. "Our study shows how circadian patterns can be used for timed therapeutic intervention possibly with lower side effects and higher efficacy," says Söhnlein.

In further studies the researchers want to examine to which extent circadian rhythms contribute to destabilization for advanced atherosclerosis. In addition, they want to focus on studying the circadian regulation of processes in the atherosclerotic deposits themselves, for example the question whether cell death is controlled in a circadian fashion.

Source: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/05/180531142944.htm

Carla Winter, et. al. Chrono-pharmacological Targeting of the CCL2-CCR2 Axis Ameliorates Atherosclerosis. Cell Metabolism, 2018 DOI: 10.1016/j.cmet.2018.05.002


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  • (Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday June 06 2018, @03:36AM

    by JoeMerchant (3937) on Wednesday June 06 2018, @03:36AM (#689147)

    Take your meds at a certain time of day, and you need less of them, and they are more effective.

    I think it's even better than that... reduction of side effects means that you can take much more effective doses of meds during the cheeseburger removal hour:

    able to stop the recruitment only into atherosclerotic areas but did not affect microvascular leukocyte migration

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