High systemic inflammation as a novel cardiovascular risk factor and target for anti-cytokine therapy: comment regarding the triglyceride glucose index

• Published in: The international journal of cardiovascular imaging Vol. 40; no. 4; pp. 945 - 948
• Main Authors: García-Escobar, Artemio, Lázaro-García, Rosa, Cabrera, José-Ángel, Jurado-Román, Alfonso, Moreno, Raúl
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dordrecht Springer Netherlands 01-04-2024; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Anti-Inflammatory Agents - adverse effects; Anti-Inflammatory Agents - therapeutic use; Arteriosclerosis; Atherosclerosis; Atherosclerosis - blood; Atherosclerosis - drug therapy; Atherosclerosis - immunology; Biomarkers - blood; Blood Glucose - drug effects; Blood Glucose - metabolism; Cardiac Imaging; Cardiology; Cardiovascular disease; Cardiovascular diseases; Cardiovascular Diseases - immunology; Cardiovascular Diseases - prevention & control; Clinical trials; Colchicine; Colchicine - adverse effects; Colchicine - therapeutic use; Coronary artery disease; Cytokines; Cytokines - blood; Cytokines - metabolism; Diabetes mellitus; Dyslipidemia; Glucose; Health risks; Heart Disease Risk Factors; Heart diseases; Humans; Imaging; Immune system; Inflammation; Inflammation - blood; Inflammation - drug therapy; Inflammation - immunology; Inflammation Mediators - blood; Inflammation Mediators - metabolism; Letter to the Editor; Leukocytes (neutrophilic); Lipids; Lymphocytes; Lymphocytes T; Macrophages; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Metabolic disorders; Metabolic syndrome; Radiology; Risk Assessment; Risk Factors; Therapy; Treatment Outcome; Triglycerides; Triglycerides - blood
• ISSN: 1875-8312; 1569-5794; 1875-8312; 1573-0743
• DOI: 10.1007/s10554-024-03046-6

In the last century, there has been more than enough research that proved the association of high lipid and glucose levels with cardiovascular disease, thus establishing the current well-known traditional cardiovascular risk factors such as dyslipidemia, diabetes, and metabolic syndrome. Hence, these cardiovascular risk factors are target therapy for glucose and lipid-lowering agents to prevent adverse cardiovascular events. However, despite controlling the lipid and glucose levels, some studies demonstrated the subclinical atherosclerosis suggesting that these cardiovascular risk factors alone cannot account for the entire atherosclerosis burden. In the last years, large-scale clinical trials demonstrated the operation of the inflammatory pathway in atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD) by the immune system, both the innate (neutrophils, macrophages) and adaptive (T cell and other lymphocytes) limbs, contribute to atherosclerosis and atherothrombosis. In this regard, some studies that use antiinflammatory therapy targeting the immune system by modulating or blocking interleukins, also known as anti-cytokine therapy, have been shown to reduce the risk of adverse cardiovascular events in patients with previous coronary artery disease. In this regard, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the use of colchicine 0.5 mg once daily for reducing cardiovascular events in patients who have established ASCVD and high residual systemic inflammation. Therefore, measuring the systemic inflammation can improve the cardiovascular risk assessment and identify the subsets of patients that will benefit from anti-cytokine therapy after diagnosis of ASCVD or after myocardial revascularization.