MADRID, 13 (EUROPA PRESS)
The National Center for Cardiovascular Research (CNIC) has demonstrated that 18FDG-PET, an imaging technique commonly used for pathologies such as cancer, also allows monitoring of atherosclerosis activity, potentially improving its follow-up and opening the door to new treatments.
Atherosclerosis is a silent disease that progresses over years without causing symptoms and is the main cause of heart attacks and strokes. It is characterized by the accumulation of lipids, cells, and other substances in the walls of arteries, which can obstruct blood flow or suddenly rupture, causing serious cardiovascular events.
Although effective treatments exist to slow its progression, it remains difficult to accurately assess whether a medical intervention is working for patients.
In this new study, scientists show that the signal detected in an 18FDG-PET scan, a positron emission tomography technique that measures the energy consumed by the body's cells, reflects the cellular metabolism of atherosclerotic lesions and not just the presence of inflammation, as previously thought.
TESTED ON TRANSGENIC ANIMALS
To reach this conclusion, the team developed an experimental model of advanced atherosclerosis in transgenic animals, the disease of which could be partially reversed through dietary and pharmacological interventions similar to those used in patients.
During disease regression, the 18FDG PET signal decreased significantly, in parallel with the reduction of genes related to glucose metabolism in various cell types in the plaque, including macrophages, lymphocytes, and smooth muscle cells.
"The 18 FDG-PET technique reflects the level of activity of the cells in atherosclerotic lesions, and can therefore serve as a sensitive tool for assessing the effect of treatments or the risk of disease progression," explained CNIC researcher Paula Nogales, lead author of the study, along with Jacob Bentzon, group leader at the CNIC and Aarhus University (Denmark).
This discovery opens the door to leveraging a technique already available in many hospitals to improve clinical monitoring of atherosclerosis and accelerate the development of new treatments targeting this silent but potentially fatal disease.
