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Study: Drug Found to Inhibit CRP Negatives

Posted on: Thursday, 27 April 2006, 12:01 CDT

British scientists have created a drug that inhibits the adverse effects of C reactive protein, which contributes to heart attack and stroke tissue damage.

The research by University College London scientists suggests targeting CRP may produce both immediate and long-term clinical benefits following a heart attack.

CRP is normally present at trace levels in the blood, but its concentration increases sharply in nearly all diseases, including trauma, infection, strokes and chronic illnesses such as rheumatoid arthritis and Crohn's disease.

CRP levels also rise dramatically after a heart attack. Patients with the greatest and most persistent increases in CRP concentration suffer higher mortality, and CRP is always deposited in and around the damaged heart tissue.

Professor Mark Pepys of the UCL Center for Amyloidosis and Acute Phase Proteins said: Although heart attacks are responsible for about one third of all deaths in developed countries, most patients survive a first heart attack. However, if they have a large scar, patients go on to develop heart failure which is eventually fatal. Reducing the immediate damage is thus critically important.

The study appears in the journal Nature.

Source: United Press International

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