(Adnkronos) - La lipoproteina (a), scoperta nel 1963 da Kåre Berg, ha un ruolo determinante come fattore di rischio per le malattie cardiovascolari, prima causa di morte e disabilità al mondo. Il suo rapporto causale con la malattia coronarica e l’infarto del miocardio è stato definito in modo inequivocabile nel 2009 con lo studio genetico realizzato dal consorzio europeo di ricerca Procardis. Ampi studi prospettici successivi hanno ulteriormente confermato che elevati livelli di Lp(a) (>50 mg/dl) contribuiscono allo sviluppo di aterosclerosi e stenosi aortica, entrambe causa di infarto miocardico e ictus. È quindi importante monitorare anche i livelli di questa lipoproteina, oltre a tutti gli altri fattori di rischio, soprattutto nella prevenzione secondaria delle malattie cardiovascolari. Se ne è parlato nel corso dell’incontro ‘Non solo colesterolo Ldl: alla scoperta della Lipoproteina (a)’ organizzato da Novartis a Milano.
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00:00The cardiovascular events represent the first cause of death in the world.
00:08It is therefore essential, in terms of prevention and containment of risk, to know all the factors
00:13that negatively impact cardiovascular health.
00:16Hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, diabetes, cigarette smoke, high levels of lipoprotein
00:23A are also added, a subtype of lipoprotein responsible for the transport of cholesterol
00:28in the circulatory system.
00:29It is also noted as LPA in the presence of other risk factors and in concentrations
00:34higher than 50 mg per deciliter, exponentially increases the level of cardiovascular risk
00:40of the subject.
00:41Lipoprotein A is just today an additional risk factor that has been categorized as
00:46an independent risk factor compared to others, but in addition to being independent, it also has the ability
00:52to worsen the risk of the patient who normally presents other risk factors,
00:57that is, to explain it better, if a patient has hypercholesterolemia, hypertension and therefore
01:03enters a category of moderate risk, if he has high levels of lipoprotein A, this
01:08puts him in a higher risk category, that is, he becomes a high risk instead of moderate.
01:13What is this lipoprotein A?
01:15Lipoprotein A is nothing more than a component of LDL and it is a component that makes that
01:20LDL even more bad, that is, already the base LDL is atherogenous, with lipoprotein A we identify
01:26that LDL that is even more atherogenous, that goes even more easily to attack our bases.
01:31Lipoprotein A is very simple to test, with a normal, classic blood test and above all
01:37it is genetically determined, so it is enough to measure it only once in the life of a subject
01:42and we already have a fairly significant estimate of its value, with small oscillations in the
01:47field of life.
01:48Today the only therapeutic option able to significantly reduce the levels of lipoprotein
01:53A is plasmapheresis. Fortunately, however, new molecules are being studied, whose potential
01:58to reduce the levels of this lipoprotein seems to be equal or even higher than 80%.
02:04Until now we did not have really effective pharmacological instruments, at the best we
02:10were able to lower the levels by about 30%.
02:13Currently, two types of molecules are being studied, they are all molecules that silence
02:19the gene, that is, they block the production of this lipoprotein A.
02:25The media tutorial, not only LDL cholesterol, at the discovery of lipoprotein A, held in
02:30Milan, is promoted by Novartis, committed to research and development of new therapeutic
02:35solutions in the cardiovascular area for more than 40 years.
02:38Science has allowed us to understand some prognostic and predictive factors on which
02:44to work with therapeutic solutions that we are researching and developing to reduce the
02:50risk of cardiovascular events.
02:53They remain the first cause of death in Italy, in Europe and in the world, and this is what
02:58pushes us not to stop.
03:00Our goal and our ambition is that no heart stops beating too soon.
03:07And to achieve this goal, we continue in the research and development of innovative therapeutic
03:14solutions for patients.