Cardiovascular Diseases
Today, the leading cause of death worldwide is what we call cardiovascular diseases (CVD). To put it into perspective, Covid-19 was the cause of death for approximately 7.01 million deaths in six years. The number of deaths due to CVD is 17.9 million every year; it is the most lethal disease. In Ireland alone, 10,000 people die every year, i.e. one person per hour. It’s a huge loss of human lives and also a considerable burden for HSE.
Our group has been working towards a sustainable solution against CVD by focusing on the aggregation of platelets. This aggregation triggers the formation of thrombus (i.e. blockage in human arteries) and the onset of CVD. We have developed a novel extract from farmed Irish organic salmon fillets rich in lipids.
Here we report the findings of a postprandial trial.
Our source was aquacultured (farmed) salmon in Ireland; this is an environmentally sustainable source. These two features (environmental sustainability and high potency) make this extract a potential candidate to protect people from the development of CVD. With the current proposal, we now aim to conduct a larger study to confirm the second human trial and provide stronger evidence for its potential health benefits for CVD.
Encapsulated Salmon Polar Lipids Modestly Reduce Postprandial Platelet Sensitivity to PAF and Thrombin in Healthy Adults: A Pilot Study
The abstract of this paper is as follows:
The postprandial effects of a novel food-grade extracted salmon polar lipids (SPL) supplement against platelet-activating factor (PAF) and thrombin-induced platelet aggregation in a human pilot study was evaluated. This study was double-blinded, crossover, and placebo controlled in design. Five healthy volunteers completed 4 h time-course trials on 5 separate days. Blood was drawn at baseline before subjects consumed a standardized breakfast with one of the following treatments: a low-dose (0.25 g) or a high-dose (0.5 g) of SPL encapsulated within a stomach resistant capsule (LDSR and HDSR respectively) or a non-resistant capsule (LDSNR and HDSNR, respectively), or placebo capsules containing food-grade glycerin (0.5 g; Placebo). Blood was analyzed at 1 h intervals for 4 h. Among the treatments tested, the high-dose non-resistant capsule (HDSNR) produced the clearest postprandial effects, inducing significant increases in EC50 (reduced platelet sensitivity) for PAF at 2–3 h and for thrombin at 3–4 h post-ingestion. Smaller or delayed effects were observed with the high-dose resistant capsule (HDSR), while low-dose formulations produced minimal changes. Postprandial plasma glucose, lipid profile (TC, HDL-C, LDL-C, TG), fibrinogen, prothrombin time, and activated partial thromboplastin time remained unaffected across all trials. This pilot study provides the first in vivo indication that SPL supplementation may modestly attenuate platelet responsiveness to both PAF and thrombin without altering standard haemostatic or metabolic biomarkers. Larger controlled studies are warranted to confirm these preliminary findings and define optimal dosing and formulation strategies.
What next?
Today, there is gap in the market of nutritional supplements with activities against inflammation and the onset of CVD. Our work is aiming to fulfill this gap.
Omega-3 fatty acids were thought that they have anti-thrombotic activities but this is not the case anymore, as reported here.
On the other hand, krill oil is not sustainable.
Here, you can read why.
I copy paste here:
“Krill are tiny shrimp-like creatures and they’re one of the most important species in the Antarctic food web. They’re eaten by everything from blue whales to Adélie penguins. If there were no krill, most forms of life in the Antarctic would vanish”.
So what next?
In our line of work, we focus on aqua-cultured species.
In Greece, my group has been working on sea bream and sea bass.
Since 2015 (when I moved to UL from the University of Athens), my interest has shifted to farmed (aqua-cultured) salmon. In Ireland, MOWI is producing organic salmon – a food with high nutritional value and as reported above with strong anti-platelet activities.
Our ongoing work is on valorising Irish salmon. Our focus, as reported in the paper attached here, is to produce an extract that can both inhibit and regress CVD.
Our “dream” is to create a product that will help people’s lives. It’s not about making money but it is about quality of life.