Unmet needs in the management of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease: Is there a role for emerging anti-inflammatory interventions?

Atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death worldwide. Despite extraordinary advances in the understanding of the pathophysiology and the utilization of very effective medications such as statins, there still remains a significant residual risk. In fact, even after optimal interventional and medical therapy, the possibility of recurrent myocardial infarction remains at approximately one third for five years after acute coronary syndromes, thus emphasizing the urgent need for novel therapies to prevent the progress of atherosclerosis. In addition, over the past two decades, although atherosclerosis has been clearly identified as an inflammatory disease of the arterial wall from compelling data of animal and human studies, clinical applications related to this accumulated knowledge are scarce. This review presents a brief description of the role of inflammation in atherogenesis, and examines selected potential anti-inflammatory interventions that are being tested in on-going clinical trials which have been designed to prevent adverse cardiovascular events as well as provide a proof of concept regarding the inflammatory hypothesis of atherosclerosis.