Thromboses, the medical term for blood clots, occur in veins or arteries. Arterial thromboses can lead to heart attacks or strokes. Blood platelets (thrombocytes) play a key role in the disease process. Doctors prescribe drugs to prevent these cells from aggregating.
“Although current therapies are efficient, they have the drawbacks that they can cause hemorrhaging or that thromboses can happen despite them,” says IPEK reseracher Dr. Philipp von Hundelshausen . “To develop new forms of therapy, it’s important to understand pathomechanisms at the molecular level.”
In the journal Blood, von Hundelshausen’s team reports on a new signaling pathway of blood clotting, which hitherto it has not been possible to influence by means of drugs. At the same time, the researchers demonstrate how this pathway can be experimentally inhibited in order to reduce the risk of thrombosis. Co-author of the study is Professor Christian Weber, Director of the Institute.
