Key result
While canakinumab reduced cardiovascular risk in patients with high hsCRP in the CANTOS trial, low-dose methotrexate showed no meaningful effect on cardiovascular disease risk in the CIRT trial.
Why the study?
Proof of atherosclerosis as an inflammatory disease drives interest in anti-inflammatory therapies, prompting exploration of more affordable approaches given the costs of canakinumab.
Do anti-inflammatory therapies like canakinumab and low-dose methotrexate reduce cardiovascular risk in patients with atherosclerosis?
Do anti-inflammatory therapies like canakinumab and low-dose methotrexate reduce cardiovascular risk in patients with atherosclerosis?
This review highlights that targeted inhibition of specific inflammatory pathways (like IL-1beta with canakinumab) reduces cardiovascular risk, whereas broader approaches like low-dose methotrexate do not, emphasizing the need for precision in anti-inflammatory therapies for atherosclerosis.
Atherosclerosis is still a great burden on human health and scientific achievements of the past 30 years have definitively proven the inflammatory causes of the disease (1, 2) highlighted by the results of the CANTOS trial (3). Canakinumab inhibition of interleukin-1 (IL1)-beta has been demonstrated to provide protection against cardiovascular (CV) risk irrespective of lipid levels in a cohort of patients with high C–reactive protein (CRP) levels despite achieving blood lipid control, as measured by high sensitivity C-Reactive Protein (hsCRP) (3). final demonstration of atherosclerosis as an inflammatory-driven pathology is driving research toward new anti-inflammatory approaches that could influence the natural history of the disease and change the clinical paradigms of therapy. Considering the costs of canakinumab and exploiting different avenues of anti-inflammatory therapies, a more affordable approach has been proposed by the authors of the CANTOS study (4).
No takes yet. Share an insight, caveat, or question.
Palmer et al. (2019) conducted an editorial in Atherosclerosis and cardiovascular risk. Anti-inflammatory therapies (Canakinumab and Methotrexate) was evaluated. While canakinumab reduced cardiovascular risk in patients with high hsCRP in the CANTOS trial, low-dose methotrexate showed no meaningful effect on cardiovascular disease risk in the CIRT trial.
Synapse has enriched 5 closely related papers on similar clinical questions. Consider them for comparative context: