About one-fourth of all heart attacks occur in people with no known risk factors. Suresh Tyagi, one of our professors in the Department of Physiology and Biophysics, wants to know why. So do the National Institutes of Health, which have funded his research with grants totaling $6.2 million.
Tyagi and his team are following one clue in particular: homocysteine. You may not have heard of it yet, but it is, Tyagi said, the cholesterol of the 21st century.
Homocysteine is a toxic, sulfur-containing amino acid byproduct that damages the inner walls of blood vessels, especially those of the heart. That damage often results in such health issues as high blood pressure, heart attack, stroke, cardiac rhythm problems and vascular dementia, a precursor of Alzheimer’s disease.
With a culprit identified, Tyagi and his team have turned their investigation to our genes.
They hope to develop genetic tests to identify people who are more susceptible to blood vessel damage and are working to better understand genetic variations that cause otherwise healthy people to be at a greater risk for a fatal heart attack and other cardiovascular diseases.
Team members want to understand the interaction among genes, diet and environmental factors so they can find ways to enhance the body’s ability to clear homocysteine from blood vessels. Already they have found an enzyme that may help.
And they are looking for ways to use gene therapy to lower homocysteine levels in people at risk for vascular damage.
Millions of people, many of whom may not even know it yet, could benefit from Tyagi’s efforts to unravel the mysteries of homocysteine and find ways to combat heart troubles.
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