To develop therapeutic strategies against atherosclerosis, synthetic peptides could inhibit the effects of chemokines on arterial inflammation while sparing their role in essential physiological processes.
- Atherosclerosis is a chronic inflammatory condition of the arteries
- Researchers have developed synthetic peptides that would make it possible to treat this disease without affecting the defenses against infections
The development of new anti-inflammatory therapies against atherosclerosis is difficult. Never mind: researchers based in Munich have just developed synthetic peptides capable of inhibiting the mechanisms that promote this disease. Their work has been published in the journal Nature.
Atherosclerosis is a chronic inflammatory disease that affects the walls of the arteries due to the effect of mediators such as cytokines and chemokines that promote vascular inflammation, as has also been shown by their role in the development severe forms of Covid-19. To prevent the effects of these inflammations such as atherosclerosis, heart attacks or rheumatoid arthritis, antibodies and small molecule drugs are mainly used, the use of which sometimes encounters limits.
The Munich researchers have designed synthetic peptides (sets of amino acids that participate in biological processes in the body) that are able to mimic certain chemokine receptors and inhibit the mechanisms that promote atherosclerosis without affecting the effects the effects of these chemokines on the control of important physiological processes. The drugs previously used acted on atherosclerosis but also suppressed the beneficial effects of chilmiokines on the defense against infections.
Possible clinical applications
“Synthetic peptides, mini-CXCR4 mimics, are able to selectively differentiate between two different chemokines but which target the same receptor, which allows them to specifically block the pathways underlying atherosclerosis”, specifies Aphrodite Kapurniotu, professor of peptide biochemistry at the University of Munich.
This work was carried out in the laboratory on animal models of atherosclerosis. “But clinical applications seem possible, in particular because peptide therapies are significantly cheaper than antibodies,” said Professor Bernhagen of the Institute for Stroke Research at the University Hospital of Munich. The results obtained are considered by the researchers as a “proof of principle” demonstrating that mimics of mini-chemokine-receptors are feasible and that this concept could be applied to other chemokines.
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