▎ WuXi AppTec content team editor
Coffee & Tea is a popular beverage all over the world. In addition to being simply delicious, caffeine in coffee and tea can also provide health benefits. Some observational studies have long found that people who regularly drink coffee or tea in moderation (moderate moderation refers to an average daily intake of 400 to 600 mg of caffeine) have a reduced risk of dying from cardiovascular disease.
But is there a causal relationship between the two? To answer this question, scientists are clearly needed to further understand the mechanism by which caffeine acts on the cardiovascular system.
▲Related reading: Moderate amount of coffee or tea to reduce the risk of stroke and dementia (Image source: 123RF)
Recently, researchers in Canada have found molecular mechanisms between caffeine intake and cardiovascular health.
In a paper published in Nature Communications, they reveal how caffeine interacts with key cytokines to clear "bad" cholesterol from the blood and play a role in protecting the cardiovascular system.
An important finding of this study is that caffeine intake reduces levels of the PCSK protein in the blood. PCSK9 is a protein that is expressed primarily in the liver and secreted into the bloodstream, a protein that reduces the liver's ability to process excess low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol.
LDL cholesterol in the blood, also known as "bad" cholesterol, is an important indicator of cardiovascular disease risk. When PCSK protein levels drop or activity is suppressed, LDL receptors on the surface of liver cells rapidly remove excess LDL cholesterol from the blood. In fact, finding ways to lower LDL cholesterol by inhibiting the PCSK protein is an important strategy for researchers to develop therapies for the treatment of cardiovascular disease.
Researchers in a group of healthy volunteers confirmed that moderate caffeine intake can reduce PCSK9 levels (Image source: Reference[1])
In this study, scientists further demonstrated through cell experiments and animal experiments that caffeine and its derivatives can block transcriptional activation of SREBP2 in hepatocytes through a series of chain reactions like dominoes, and then inhibit the expression of PCSK9 in the liver, increasing the expression of LDL receptors.
"SREBP2 is known to be associated with many cardiometabolic diseases, such as diabetes and fatty liver disease, so these findings could have far-reaching implications." The study's corresponding author, Professor Richard Austin of McMaster University, noted.
▲Schematic diagram of the molecular mechanism proposed in this study (source: Reference[1])
Professor Guillaume Paré, another author involved in the study, added: "The broad impact of this study is also reflected in the linking of widely ingested bioactive compounds at the molecular level to cholesterol metabolism. This unexpected finding suggests that the effects of daily diet are more complex than we thought. ”
It is worth mentioning that this study not only provides an important health justification for people who love coffee and tea, but also opens up new possibilities for people who need to prevent or treat cardiovascular disease but do not drink coffee or tea. Because based on the mechanisms they found, the research team worked with medicinal chemists to develop new caffeine derivatives that can lower PCSK9 levels in the blood, which are much more potent than caffeine, which is expected to lead to new lipid-lowering drugs.