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An antioxidant drug reverses atherosclerosis and could be used to prevent heart attacks and strokes due to clots. Atherosclerosis is the build-up of fatty deposits in the arteries. When a type of fat called LDL cholesterol becomes oxidized and builds up to form plaques in the artery walls, inflammation and damage increase which can cause the plaques to rupture and cause blood to clot. These clots can block vital arteries that allow blood to flow to the heart, causing a heart attack, or to the brain causing a stroke. Previously, researchers at the University of Reading discovered that LDL cholesterol...

At the Institut Curie, CNRS and Inserm researchers have shown that cysteamine, which is already used to treat a rare disease called cystinosis, prevents the death of neurons in Huntington’s disease. Like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, Huntington’s disease, is characterized by the abnormal death of neurons. Cysteamine raises neuronal levels of BDNF protein, a trophic factor which is depleted in Huntington’s disease, and by assaying BDNF in the blood it is possible to evaluate the effect of treatment. If other studies confirm these results, cysteamine could soon be used to treat Huntington’s disease, and BDNF could serve as a biomarker of...