Potential new drug may reduce cardiovascular risk by targeting gut microbes

Researchers at Cleveland Clinic in the United States have designed a potential new class of drugs that may reduce cardiovascular risk by targeting a microbial pathway in the gut. Unlike antibiotics, which non-specifically kill gut bacteria and can lead to adverse side effects and resistance, the new class of compounds prevents microbes from making a harmful molecule linked to heart disease, but they do so without killing the microbes, which are part of the gut flora and may be beneficial to overall health. In the study, which took place in mice, the new drugs reversed two major risk factors for