Revving up a process that slows down as we age may protect against atherosclerosis, a major cause of heart attacks and strokes. In findings published online today in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), scientists at Albert Einstein College of Medicine led by Ana Maria Cuervo, M.D., Ph.D., successfully minimized artery-narrowing plaque in mice that would otherwise develop those lesions. The researchers did so by boosting chaperone-mediated autophagy (CMA), a cellular housekeeping process that Dr. Cuervo discovered in 1993 and named in 2000.

"We've shown in this research that we need CMA to protect against atherosclerosis, which becomes severe and progresses when CMA declines—something that also happens when people get older," said Dr. Cuervo, professor of developmental and molecular biology and of medicine, the Robert and Renée Belfer Chair for the Study of Neurodegenerative Diseases, and co-director of the Institute for Aging Research at Einstein. "But equally important, we've proven that increasing CMA activity can be an effective strategy for curbing atherosclerosis and halting its progression."

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