More news on the potential benefits of low IGF-1:
People with Laron syndrome have a deficiency in the growth hormone receptor that prevents their bodies from properly using the hormone. These individuals have normal or high levels of growth hormone but low levels of insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1), which normally helps growth hormone to promote the growth of bones and tissues.
Because having low IGF-1 levels has been associated with a higher risk of cardiovascular disease5, “everybody assumed that people with Laron probably had a lot of heart and cardiovascular problems, too”, says Longo. A previous study by the same group found that people with Laron syndrome had a normal rate of death from cardiovascular disease1. But when Guevara-Aguirre investigated some of the deaths attributed to heart attacks, he found inconsistencies. “People in those little towns sometimes attribute any death without an explanation to myocardial infarction because it’s the easiest thing,” he says.
The researchers performed a series of tests that showed that people with Laron syndrome actually had normal or improved levels of cardiovascular-disease risk compared with their relatives without the disorder.
Drug inspiration?
Haim Werner, a geneticist at Tel Aviv University in Israel who studies the protective effects of Laron syndrome against cancer, says that the current work is important in helping to characterize genes and pathways that might confer protection against cardiovascular disease. “Delineation of these genes is of crucial importance for future nutritional or pharmacological interventions,” he says.
Longo hopes that the recent results might inspire the development of new strategies to prevent cardiovascular disease in people without the condition, perhaps an oral drug to bring IGF-1 levels down by targeting the growth hormone receptor. “We just have to find out how to do it safely, so that we don’t make things worse,” he says.
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