Sticky plaques building up on the walls of your blood vessels can lead to heart attacks and strokes | New nanoparticle infusion therapy has been found to break down these plaques safely in tests in pigs.

From the article: Fats, cholesterol and other substances in blood can build up over time as plaques on arterial walls. This can cause direct blockages, or trigger an inflammatory response known as atherosclerosis. Both scenarios can cause heart attacks and strokes, but the latter is in some ways more insidious because there are few warning signs in advance.

“That’s the scarier one that leads to most heart attacks,” said Bryan Smith, co-lead author of the study. “Because such plaques don’t necessarily block much of the artery, and because the effects of the rupture can very suddenly completely block blood flow, such a heart attack can seem to appear as if from nowhere.”

Part of the problem of atherosclerosis is that dead cells in the vascular tissue aren’t properly cleared away by immune cells, creating lesions in the arteries. These cells are producing a molecule called CD47, which presents a “don’t eat me” signal to immune cells. Previous studies have shown that blocking CD47 allows immune cells to clear out dead cells once again – but unfortunately, they also tend to attack red blood cells in the process, leading to anemia as a side effect.

For the [new study](https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-024-52005-1), the team used CD47-blocking nanoparticles that are more targeted towards monocytes and macrophages, two types of immune cell that are associated with inflammation in plaques. And sure enough, in tests in pigs the therapy reduced atherosclerosis as effectively as previous drugs, without any damage to blood cells.

Now if they can find a way to take successful tests with cops and apply them to humans.