Atherosclerosis is the single most common cause of cardiovascular disease and is the major contributor to the development of angina, heart attacks, congestive heart failure, peripheral vascular disease and stroke. Despite the introduction of statin based therapy to reduce levels of plasma LDL-cholesterol, the epidemic of cardiovascular disease claims over 40,000 Australian lives and costs the health system approximately $6 billion per year. New approaches are required if we are to further reduce the burden of cardiovascular disease.
Baker IDI researchers have identified negative associations of plasmalogens (a specific class of phospholipid) with stable and unstable coronary artery disease; they further identified plasmalogens as significant predictors of future cardiovascular events (heart attack, stroke and CVD death) independent of plasma cholesterol levels. In mice, supplementation of plasmalogens reduced atherosclerosis by 70%.
Our extensive studies provide compelling evidence for a protective role of plasmalogens in cardiovascular disease, independent of cholesterol. We are thus developing a new oral nutritional supplement, which we call a plasmalogen precursor, to reduce metabolic and cardiovascular risk.
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