Insights into Cardiovascular Diseases: The Vicious Platelet-Immune System Loop

Abstract

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death today and a burden on a country’s economic growth. Management of this disease continues to depend on dietary control and statins. However, the disease burden refuses to decline. It is probably because treatment regime addresses the effect and not the cause. Augmented LDL level has been traditionally perceived as the major risk factor contributing to the development of atherosclerosis, the main cause of several coronary ailments. Recent research also suggests that pre-existing chronic inflammation leads to oxidation of LDL and thus makes it pathogenic. This inflammatory repertoire, apart from leukocytes, also includes the anucleated cell fragments called platelets. Platelets conventionally associated with clotting phenomenon, also express array of inflammatory mediators creating a crucial link between immune response and thrombotic complications. In this review we will examine the role of inflammation as a primary causative agent of atherosclerotic as well as non-atherosclerotic cardiovascular diseases.