{"id":218881,"date":"2025-07-28T04:04:32","date_gmt":"2025-07-28T09:04:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2025\/07\/revolution-in-medicine-a-molecule-produced-by-gut-bacteria-causes-atherosclerosis-responsible-for-millions-of-deaths"},"modified":"2025-07-28T04:04:32","modified_gmt":"2025-07-28T09:04:32","slug":"revolution-in-medicine-a-molecule-produced-by-gut-bacteria-causes-atherosclerosis-responsible-for-millions-of-deaths","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2025\/07\/revolution-in-medicine-a-molecule-produced-by-gut-bacteria-causes-atherosclerosis-responsible-for-millions-of-deaths","title":{"rendered":"Revolution in medicine: A molecule produced by gut bacteria causes atherosclerosis, responsible for millions of deaths"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/revolution-in-medicine-a-molecule-produced-by-gut-bacteria-causes-atherosclerosis-responsible-for-millions-of-deaths2.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The Argentine microbiologist Federico Rey and Indian pathologist Vaibhav Vemuganti applaud the \u201cexciting opportunities\u201d that the new study opens for the prevention and treatment of cardiovascular disease. In a commentary also published Wednesday in <i>Nature<\/i>, the two experts emphasize that exposure to imidazole propionate worsens plaque formation in the arteries of mice. \u201cThis effect occurs independently of changes in cholesterol levels, a surprising result given the central role of cholesterol in the development of atherosclerosis,\u201d note the two specialists, from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. \u201cThis discovery offers an interesting clue about a possible new factor involved in the origin of atherosclerosis. This is very relevant because, although lowering cholesterol \u2014 through drugs called statins, for example \u2014 can effectively reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease, a considerable proportion of people still experience adverse cardiovascular events, such as myocardial infarctions or strokes,\u201d they warn. The CNIC itself said in a statement that the new study \u201ccould revolutionize\u201d the diagnosis and treatment of atherosclerosis.<\/p>\n<p>Sancho stresses that the work has been made possible thanks to the collaboration of thousands of volunteer employees of Banco Santander in Madrid, but also thanks to grants of \u20ac1 million from the \u201cla Caixa\u201d Foundation, \u20ac150,000 from the European Research Council and \u20ac100,000 from the State Research Agency.<\/p>\n<p>The discovery of the decisive effect of imidazole propionate on atherosclerosis takes place against a backdrop in which the scientific community is revealing the unknown role <a href=\"https:\/\/english.elpais.com\/health\/2025-01-21\/tell-me-what-bacteria-live-in-your-gut-and-ill-tell-you-who-your-friends-are.html\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"\" title=\"https:\/\/english.elpais.com\/health\/2025-01-21\/tell-me-what-bacteria-live-in-your-gut-and-ill-tell-you-who-your-friends-are.html\">of intestinal microbes<\/a> in some human diseases. The biotechnologist Cayetano Pleguezuelos and his colleagues at the Hubrecht Institute (The Netherlands) demonstrated in February 2020 that a strain of the bacterium <i><i>Escherichia<\/i> coli<\/i> produces a toxic molecule, called colibactin, which damages the DNA of human cells and causes malignant tumors.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Argentine microbiologist Federico Rey and Indian pathologist Vaibhav Vemuganti applaud the \u201cexciting opportunities\u201d that the new study opens for the prevention and treatment of cardiovascular disease. In a commentary also published Wednesday in Nature, the two experts emphasize that exposure to imidazole propionate worsens plaque formation in the arteries of mice. \u201cThis effect occurs [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":511,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-218881","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biotech-medical"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218881","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/511"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=218881"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218881\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=218881"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=218881"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=218881"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}