A vaccination for heart attacks?

The Australian Study for the Prevention through Immunisation of Cardiovascular Events (AUSPICE), based at the Centre for Cardiovascular Research and Education in Therapeutics at Monash University, is testing whether a safe, one-off vaccination can help to reduce the risk of heart attacks and strokes.

Under principal investigator Professor Andrew Tonkin, assisted by Dr Ingrid Hopper, the study will test whether the existing pneumococcal vaccine can not only reduce invasive pneumococcal disease but also help to prevent heart attack and stroke. According to Professor Tonkin, studies suggest there may be a component of the adult pneumococcal vaccine that looks like oxidised LDL, the bad cholesterol that builds up in arteries of people with heart disease.

“The antibodies that are generated in response to the vaccine appear to bind to and reduce the build-up of cholesterol, thereby reducing vascular disease,” Professor Tonkin said. “The only way to explore this efficiently is through a randomised controlled trial.”

Trial centres in Newcastle, Gosford, Canberra, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth are aiming to recruit 1000 participants each, aged 55 to 60 years, who will be asked to attend a single clinic visit for less than one hour. People with at least two risk factors for heart disease — high blood pressure, high cholesterol or overweight/obesity — will be randomised to receive either the active vaccine or a saline placebo. Health record linkage will be used to determine the rates of heart attack and stroke in the treatment and control groups four to five years after vaccination.

“If shown to be effective, it would be relatively easy to incorporate changes into clinical practice because the pneumococcal vaccine is safe and has already been used in Australia for over 20 years in a different target group,” Dr Hopper noted.

Professor Tonkin said the study could “dramatically improve the health outcomes for so many Australians affected by adverse cardiovascular health” and is “the first and only trial registered in the world exploring this possibility”. He encouraged anyone who receives an invitation to the study to consider participating and to complete the eligibility screening.

For more information on the study, visit the AUSPICE website.