Assistant Research Professor of Pharmacology, Vlad Serbulea, has received an American Heart Association Career Development Award for his research on Glucocorticoids. This award supports highly promising healthcare and academic professionals, in the early years of their first professional appointment, to explore innovative questions or pilot studies that will provide preliminary data and training necessary to assure their future success as a research scientist.
Dr. Serbulea describes his research:
“Glucocorticoids, such as cortisol, hydrocortisone, prednisone, and dexamethasone, are powerful anti-inflammatories that are regularly used by patients with chronic inflammatory diseases such as lupus and rheumatoid arthritis. Taking these steroids chronically can increase the risk of cardiovascular events, such as heart attack and stroke. In this project, we will determine how glucocorticoids affect the stability of atherosclerotic plaques. A stable plaque is less likely to rupture, thus less likely to lead to a thrombus and subsequent heart attacks or stroke. The stability of plaque depends on a layer called the fibrous cap made up predominantly by smooth muscle cells that are thought to adopt a fibrotic phenotype.
Unfortunately, there are currently no treatments available that can directly improve plaque stability and decrease the risk of heart problems. Furthermore, multiple studies estimate that over 2% of the world’s population use glucocorticoids. We found that glucocorticoids can stop smooth muscle cells from changing into a fibrotic phenotype, instead promoting a plaque-destabilizing calcifying phenotype.
This project aims to test whether inhibiting the action in smooth muscle cells can enhance plaque stability through thickening of the fibrous cap. As part of this project, we are developing custom peptides and small proteins to inhibit the anti-fibrotic but not the anti-inflammatory aspects of glucocorticoid signaling.”
Congratulations Vlad!!!
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