Abstracts of their results are being presented from 3 to 5 p.m. Monday, March 18 at the American College of Cardiology’s annual scientific session in Atlanta.
The vaccine consists of synthetic peptides (compounds that make up proteins) that resemble the structure of certain portions of the major protein component (Apo B100) of the bad type of cholesterol (low-density lipoprotein or LDL). Using this peptide-based vaccine, both the Cedars-Sinai group and the Swedish group have shown 60 to 70 percent less arterial plaque formation in mice with high cholesterol levels.
P.K. Shah, M.D., director of Cedars-Sinai’s Division of Cardiology and director of the Atherosclerosis Research Center, led the Cedars-Sinai group. The study has been supported in part by a grant from the Eisner Family Foundation to Dr. P.K. Shah . Kuang-Yuh Chyu, M.D., will present the group’s abstract in Hall G of the Georgia World Congress Center.
Dr. Gunilla Nordick-Fredricksson will present the Swedish team’s findings during the same 3 to 5 p.m. session. Dr. Jan Nilsson of Lund University in Malmö, Sweden led the Swedish researchers.
The ACC’s 51st Annual Scientific Session and the ACC Interventional Symposium are being held in Atlanta from March 17 through 20. Additional information is available at the ACC Web site at http://www.acc.org/2002ann_meeting/home_02.htm.
Cedars-Sinai Medical Center is one of the largest non-profit academic medical centers in the Western United States. For the fifth straight two-year period, Cedars-Sinai has been named Southern California's gold standard in health care in an independent survey. Cedars-Sinai is internationally renowned for its diagnostic and treatment capabilities and its broad spectrum of programs and services, as well as breakthrough in biomedical research and superlative medical education. Named one of the 100 "Most Wired" hospitals in health care in 2001, the Medical Center ranks among the top 10 non-university hospitals in the nation for its research activities.
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