University of Louisville Researcher Receives $6.2 Million to Study Heart Attack Mystery

Sept. 4, 2007, LOUISVILLE, Ky. – University of Louisville professor Suresh Tyagi has recently received grants totaling more than $4.1 million from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to study an amino acid that may explain why roughly one fourth of all heart attacks occur in people with no known risk factors.

This NIH support, combined with a $2.1 million grant awarded to Tyagi for 2004 through 2008, will help propel Tyagi’s research forward as he seeks to understand why people without risk factors such as high cholesterol and high blood pressure may suddenly experience a heart attack.

Tyagi studies homocysteine, an amino acid byproduct that plays a critical role in damaging arteries.

“Vascular cells, like those found on the inside of our coronary arteries, are particularly vulnerable,” says Tyagi.

Homocysteine causes damage to the inner walls of blood vessels often resulting in health issues such as high blood pressure, heart attacks, strokes, cardiac rhythm problems and vascular dementia, a precursor of Alzheimer’s disease.

Tyagi calls homocysteine, “the cholesterol of the 21st century.” His team hopes to develop genetic tests to identify people who are more susceptible to blood vessel damage and to better understand genetic variations that cause otherwise healthy individuals to be at a greater risk for a fatal heart attack and other cardiovascular diseases.

“We are trying to look at the interaction between genes, diet and other factors in the environment and find ways to enhance the body’s ability to clear homocysteine from the blood vessels,” he said.

Already, Tyagi’s team has found a promising enzyme that may help and the team is also looking for ways to utilize gene therapy to lower homocysteine levels in people at risk for this kind of damage.

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Source: University of Louisville.

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