How do nutraceuticals protect against heart disease?

Title : How do nutraceuticals protect against heart disease?

Abstract:

Atherosclerosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ACVD) is responsible for a third of all global deaths. Although a reduction in morbidity and mortality from ACVD has been achieved recently by lifestyle changes and pharmaceutical intervention, this is expected to reverse in the future because of global increase in risk factors such as hypercholesterolemia, obesity and diabetes. Current pharmaceutical therapies against ACVD are associated with substantial residual risk for the disease together with other issues such as side effects. In addition, pharmaceutical agents against many promising targets have proved disappointing in clinical trials. It is therefore essential that the molecular basis of ACVD is fully understood, and new therapeutic/preventative agents or targets are identified and validated. 

The major focus of recent research in my laboratory is to understand the molecular mechanisms underlying the protective actions of natural products in ACVD using a combination of in vitro and in vivo model systems together with biochemical, molecular biology, pharmacological and immunological approaches. Our research has provided novel insights into the mechanisms underlying the protective actions of several nutraceuticals, including fatty acids, polyphenols and probiotic bacteria. In addition to the beneficial effects on ACVD, our studies have revealed protective actions against other inflammatory disorders, particularly non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. Our findings on the mechanisms underlying the beneficial actions of key nutraceuticals will be presented.

Audience Take Away:

• The audience will learn about how nutraceuticals can prevent and treat heart disease
• The research-led knowledge base will positively impact their jobs
• The research could be used by other faculty to expand their research or teaching
• The research could impact therapeutic options available in heart disease
• The research could lead to development of new agents to prevent and treat heart disease

Biography:

Dipak Ramji is Professor of Cardiovascular Science and Deputy Head of the School of Biosciences at Cardiff University. He is also Fellow of the Learned Society of Wales. He received his BSc (Hons) degree (Biochemistry) and his PhD (Molecular Biology) from the University of Leeds. This was followed by post-doctoral research at EMBL (Heidelberg) and IRBM (Rome) with fellowships from the Royal Society and the EU. His current research is focused on understanding how natural products regulate cellular processes in heart disease and other inflammatory disorders with the goal of attaining deeper mechanistic insight and identifying preventative/therapeutic agents. He has published over 150 research articles (h index 43 and i10 index 79 with over 9,140 citations), including 880-page book in 2022 on Methods in Atherosclerosis. He is an Editorial Board member of many international journals, member of the British Heart Foundation Project Grants Committee, external examiner of taught programmes at three universities and has supervised 27 PhD students to completion.