Biotech Values

[iwfal]

Entirely new mechanism by which age increases the risk of MI. Completely out of the blue for me, although the original paper was in 2014 (this year's paper provides substantially more foundation).

Jaiswal et al.4 now provide new insight into how aging can promote atherosclerosis and cardiovascular events in their investigation of a phenomenon termed clonal hematopoiesis of indeterminate potential, or CHIP.5 This condition is an age-related disorder characterized by the acquisition of somatic mutations in hematopoietic stem cells that confer on these cells a selective advantage. As a consequence, instead of the normal polyclonal generation of blood cells, mutation-containing clones expand over time and make up an increasing percentage of the stem cells and their progeny and may include granulocytes, lymphocytes, and monocytes.

...

In studies involving participants with a mean age of 60 years or older, carriers of CHIP had nearly twice the risk of coronary heart disease as noncarriers. Among younger participants (age, <50 years), CHIP carriers had four times the risk of myocardial infarction as noncarriers.

http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMe1706173

BTW - one of the authors is the most reliable interpreters of clinical risk and associated predictors for MI that I've found. Among other things he tends not to overstate the certainty - and almost always has solid reasoning for his assessments. @skathire ?