Acne Drug Could Help Combat Hardening of the Arteries

This hardening, or biomineralisation, is essential for the production of bone, but in arteries it underlies a lot of cardiovascular disease and other diseases associated with ageing like dementia," said Shanahan. "We wanted to find out what triggers the formation of calcium phosphate crystals, and why it seems to be concentrated around the collagen and elastin which makes up much of the artery wall." I'd been thinking for years that hardening of the arteries was linked to DNA damage, and that DNA damage is a pathway switched on by many agents including smoking and lipids," Working together with Cycle Pharmaceuticals, a Cambridge-based company, the researchers identified six known molecules that they thought might inhibit the PARP enzymes. Detailed experiments with these showed that the antibiotic minocycline was highly effective in preventing hardening of the arteries. https://www.technologynetworks.com/drug-discovery/news/acne-drug-could-help-combat-hardening-of-the-arteries-320519?utm_campaign=NEWSLETTER_TN_Breaking%20Science%20News&utm_source=hs_email&utm_medium=email&utm_content=73600339&_hsenc=p2ANqtz--_2sPcLdSajLSfBQeK0NfMaKga0zSzUAH_cqoFLYLxF1cXlXy1OWvNAiVeB8Hp8Bn7bzkNPtcoC1jXPuMv6Ge3hQNbpA&_hsmi=73600339