Abstract 704: Autophagy Activation Promotes Atherosclerosis Regression
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Atherosclerosis is characterized by the deposition of cholesterol-rich plaques within the artery wall that are primarily comprised of macrophage and vascular smooth muscle cell (VSMC) foam cells. Atherogenesis is associated with a progressive defect in autophagy, a cell process that promotes cellular cholesterol homeostasis by degrading excess lipids and promoting cholesterol efflux. We recently showed that during atherosclerosis progression, autophagy and cholesterol efflux to HDL was particularly defective in VSMC foam cells as compared to macrophage foam cells. While previous studies have shown that autophagy activation of transcription factor EB by trehalose protects against atherosclerosis, the ability of this therapeutic compound to shrink pre-existing atherosclerotic plaque (atherosclerosis regression ) is unknown. We hypothesized that activating autophagy with trehalose would promote atherosclerosis regression in mice by enhancing macrophage and VSMC reverse cholesterol transport. Mice were injected with a gain of function PCSK9 adeno-associated virus and fed a Western Diet for 16 weeks to promote atherosclerotic plaque progression, followed by a switch to chow diet for 6 weeks to induce plaque regression. During the regression phase, mice received sub-cutaneous injections of saline or trehalose biweekly. Aortic sinuses were evaluated for changes in plaque size and lipid content. Circulating immune cells were quantified by flow cytometry. A switch to chow diet decreased circulating inflammatory and patrolling monocytes as compared to baseline, although no changes between the trehalose and saline treatment groups were observed. Oil Red O staining revealed a decrease in plaque lipid content in trehalose-treated mice as compared to the saline group, suggesting that autophagy activation in mice during atherosclerosis regression promotes favorable plaque remodeling. Our data demonstrates the therapeutic potential of autophagy activation in reducing atherosclerotic plaque burden. Further analysis of autophagy and inflammatory markers to characterize the mechanisms by which trehalose improves atherosclerosis regression is ongoing.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.006 | 0.002 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".