So, we’ve been treating high cholesterol levels and high blood pressure as a means to preclude heart disease and strokes.  But, we are not truly sure if that makes the big difference.

Think of our treatment of ulcers- for years, we thought it was related to diets and the like.  But, then H. pylori were identified as the primary causative factors in ulcer formation.   Could that be true for heart disease?

We’ve had an inkling this could be true since 1997.  Dr. Paul Ridker (with Drs. Cushman, Stampfer, Tracy, Hennekens of the Physicians’ Health Study) published findings in the New England Journal of Medicine.  Their report indicated that C-reactive protein levels could serve as an indicator for potential cardiac disease.  (This is the same study that found aspirin useful in the treatment of cardiac disease.  Which is not surprising, since those with the highest levels of C-reactive protein were most benefited by the aspirin regimen.)

(Dr. Ridker, at Peter Bent Brigham/Women’s Hospital [Boston], is the inventor of record for the sensitive C-reactive protein test.)

About 10 years ago, Nanobac Labs had developed a drug cocktail (one that would require the use of drug compounders) to treat nanobacteria that they found associated with heart problems.  Their data was promising, but the firm went out of business before they finished development of a single drug combination (instead of multiple drugs or requiring drug compounding).

We know that abnormal cholesterol levels and smoking create immune responses along the coronary arteries or blood vessels supplying the brain.  Given the years of assault by these culprits, it should not surprise you that this chronic inflammation affords the formation of plaque (arterial deposits), which blocks blood flow, or to have the plaque break off and then block a smaller vessel (typically in the brain, which is the cause of strokes).

Given that Nanobac is no longer in existence (and even if it were), additional studies are being effected to test the hypothesis that inflammation is the cause of heart problems.

One of the new tests involves methotrexate (a generic drug, at this point in time).  For this study, the test population includes those patients with diabetes or diabetic metabolic syndrome (a combination of diabetic risk factors) and have also suffered a heart attack.   Right now, we have no great treatment regimen for these patients.

Canakinumab, Novartis’ anti-inflammatory antibody, is being tested on patients with cardiovascular disease (stable conditions) and observed inflammation.  (This is among the early steps in verifying the utility of the therapy.)

This is going to be an interesting year or two of study…

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