Pharmacological Inhibition of Factor XIIa Attenuates Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm, Reduces Atherosclerosis, and Stabilizes Atherosclerotic Plaques.

Background: 3F7 is a monoclonal antibody targeting the enzymatic pocket of activated factor XII (FXIIa), thereby inhibiting its catalytic activity. Given the emerging role of FXIIa in promoting thromboinflammation, along with its apparent redundancy for hemostasis, the selective inhibition of FXIIa represents a novel and highly attractive approach targeting pathogenic processes that cause thromboinflammation-driven cardiovascular diseases.

Methods: The effects of FXIIa inhibition were investigated using three distinct mouse models of cardiovascular disease-angiotensin II-induced abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA), an ApoE model of atherosclerosis, and a tandem stenosis model of atherosclerotic plaque instability.

A Recombinant Fusion Construct between Human Serum Albumin and NTPDase CD39 Allows Anti-Inflammatory and Anti-Thrombotic Coating of Medical Devices.

Medical devices directly exposed to blood are commonly used to treat cardiovascular diseases. However, these devices are associated with inflammatory reactions leading to delayed healing, rejection of foreign material or device-associated thrombus formation. We developed a novel recombinant fusion protein as a new biocompatible coating strategy for medical devices with direct blood contact.

The vitamin E derivative garcinoic acid from Garcinia kola nut seeds attenuates the inflammatory response.

The plant Garcinia kola is used in African ethno-medicine to treat various oxidation- and inflammation-related diseases but its bioactive compounds are not well characterized. Garcinoic acid (GA) is one of the few phytochemicals that have been isolated from Garcinia kola. We investigated the anti-inflammatory potential of the methanol extract of Garcinia kola seeds (NE) and purified GA, as a major phytochemical in these seeds, in lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-activated mouse RAW264.

Dual-Targeted Theranostic Delivery of miRs Arrests Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm Development.

Abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) is an often deadly disease without medical, non-invasive treatment options. The upregulation of vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 (VCAM-1) on aortic endothelium provides an early target epitope for a novel biotechnological theranostic approach. MicroRNA-126 was used as a therapeutic agent, based on its capability to downregulate VCAM-1 expression in endothelial cells and thereby reduces leukocyte adhesion and exerts anti-inflammatory effects.

A single-chain antibody-CD39 fusion protein targeting activated platelets protects from cardiac ischaemia/reperfusion injury.

Aims: CD39 is a cell membrane NTPase with anti-inflammatory and anti-platelet effects. However, its clinical use is limited by its bleeding side effect. With the goal of harnessing its therapeutic potential while avoiding haemostatic problems, we designed a fusion protein consisting of the extracellular domain of CD39 and a single-chain antibody (Targ-CD39) that specifically binds to activated glycoprotein (GP)IIb/IIIa and thus to activated platelets.