Sugar against atherosclerosis

Kirill Stasevich, "Science and Life" based on ScienceNews: A sugar can melt away cholesterol

Metabolic disorders can lead to atherosclerosis: fatty deposits form on the walls of blood vessels, which grow into large atherosclerotic plaques consisting of cholesterol, connective tissue proteins, calcium, immune cells, etc. To prevent this from happening, it is advised to eat right, in particular, not to lean on fatty and sweet foods – because excess sugar can lead to diabetes, and high blood sugar in diabetes stimulates the formation of the notorious plaques.

However, sugar is different from sugar – as researchers from the University of Bonn found out, carbohydrates cyclodextrins prevent the development of atherosclerosis. Cyclodextrins are obtained by enzymatic processing of starch and from a chemical point of view are a ring of several molecules of ordinary glucose.

Structural formulas of basic cyclodextrins – VM

They are used in a variety of fields, from the food and cosmetics industry to pharmaceuticals and biotechnology; with the help of these carbohydrates, antifungal drugs are made, hormones are synthesized, they are even added to air fresheners.

In an article in Science Translational Medicine (S. Zimmer et al. Cyclodextrin promotes atherosclerosis regression via macrophage reprogramming) states that regular subcutaneous injections of one of the cyclodextrins reduce the size of old atherosclerotic plaques by 45% and prevent the appearance of new ones – despite the fact that the mice tested were, firstly, genetically predisposed to atherosclerosis, and, secondly, continued to sit on a fat diet. We said that the disease develops with the active participation of immune cells of macrophages: excess fat is deposited in the form of so-called cholesterol crystals, forcing macrophages to trigger an inflammatory reaction, due to which plaques on the walls of blood vessels grow even stronger. So, it turned out that cyclodextrin dilutes cholesterol crystals, simultaneously reducing the level of inflammation and stimulating the transfer of cholesterol from the blood to the liver – under the action of cyclic carbohydrate, the activity of the LXR gene increases, which helps to utilize fats.

Although cyclodextrins, as it was said, are allowed for use in the pharmaceutical and food industries, they will still need to be tested for side effects in clinical trials. On the one hand, the results of some past experiments on animals suggest that they harm hearing (although just in the work described above, no deafness happened to mice). On the other hand, it is not entirely clear how the liver will react if a stream of cholesterol, which was previously sitting in plaques, suddenly goes into it. I would like to think that everything is solved here by the correct selection of dosage, and soon cyclodextrins either by themselves or in combination with other anti-atherosclerotic substances will enter into everyday medical practice.

Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru  14.04.2016