A potent form of 'good cholesterol' could be used to help prevent people with rheumatoid arthritis from developing heart disease, according to a new study.
People with rheumatoid arthritis - a long-term autoimmune disorder that primarily affects joints - have double the risk of death from heart disease.
This is because for unknown reasons they don't produce cholesterol like a person without the disease would, explained Professor Andrew Murphy, Head of the Haematopoiesis and Leukocyte Biology laboratory at the Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute.
"We found a lot of cholesterol residing in stem cells in the bone marrow of people with rheumatoid arthritis and this makes them produce more white blood cells, and having more white blood cells leads to a clogging of the arteries faster," he said.
In Australia, around 400,000 live with rheumatoid arthritis, making it the second most common type of arthritis after osteoarthritis.
Researchers at the Baker Institute, Walter and Eliza Hall Institute and the University of Alabama, Birmingham, believe they have identified a novel approach to tackle the dangerous link between RA and heart disease.
Published in the European Heart Journal, a study on mice showed that high-density lipoprotein (HDL) reduced, and in even some cases, reversed a build up of plaque in the arteries that arose because of the rheumatoid arthritis.
"Essentially this 'super' form of HDL is drawing cholesterol out of the cells," said Professor Murphy.
Targeting the cholesterol defects in people with rheumatoid arthritis through an injection of reconstituted HDL could limit plaque build-up, and therefore, the possibility of heart disease, he said.
While much more research is needed, it's hoped this research may also have implications for people with other autoimmune diseases such as lupus, which also places them at high risk of heart disease.
