| Budget Amount *help |
¥4,160,000 (Direct Cost: ¥3,200,000、Indirect Cost: ¥960,000)
Fiscal Year 2014: ¥2,080,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,600,000、Indirect Cost: ¥480,000)
Fiscal Year 2013: ¥2,080,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,600,000、Indirect Cost: ¥480,000)
|
|---|
| Outline of Final Research Achievements |
Smoking is an important causative and/or risk factor for the induction and development of cardiovascular disease. Varenicline is one of the most widely used drugs for smoking cessation. However, whether increased risk of serious cardiovascular events is an adverse effect of varenicline remains controversial. In this study, we determined if varenicline increases the risk of cardiovascular events using apolipoprotein E knockout (ApoE KO) mice. ApoE KO mice (8 weeks old) were injected with varenicline 0.5 mg kg-1 day-1 for 3 weeks. Varenicline aggravated atherosclerotic plaque formation in whole aorta from ApoE KO mice compared with vehicle. Methyllycaconitine, an α7 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (nAChR) antagonist, inhibited varenicline-induced aggravated plaque formation. Our findings show that varenicline progresses atherosclerotic plaque formation through α7 nAChR, and thereby increases the risk of cardiovascular events.
|
