Moving upstream in thrombosis

Researchers at Tufts University School of Medicine think that inhibiting the MMP1/PAR1 pathway could be a more effective way to prevent arterial thrombosis than using therapeutics that modulate thrombin itself, and it could also decrease the chance of life-threatening bleeding side effects.¹ Because the new intervention point in the platelet activation and aggregation pathway would be targeted acutely, it might also avoid the toxicities seen in chronic use of some MMP inhibitors.

Arterial thrombosis, which often presents in the form of myocardial infarction (MI) or stroke, occurs following the rupture of atherosclerotic plaques. One of the first events in the cascade is the exposure of platelets to subendothelial ollagen, which signals a pathway of platelet activation and aggregation that can lead to occlusive blood clots.²...