BioCentury
ARTICLE | Cover Story

Disrupting atherosclerosis

January 22, 2009 8:00 AM UTC

A team of German and U.S. researchers has designed a peptide that decreases atherosclerotic lesions in mice by disrupting interactions between two platelet-derived chemokines.1 The findings have led to the formation of Carolus Therapeutics Inc., which is developing the peptide for cardiovascular and inflammatory disorders.

Atherosclerotic lesions and plaques occur as a result of a series of inflammatory processes on the walls of blood vessels.2 In particular, adhesion of circulating leukocytes and platelets to inflamed arterial endothelial cells increases vessel permeability to plasma lipid components like plaque-forming low-density lipoprotein (LDL)...