Alcohol - LPS - Atherosclerosis Paradox
By Scott Needham
Posted in
An area of personal interest and research is the disease atherosclerosis. When entering claims into Research Analysis (RA) on the topic of atherosclerosis, I identified what appears to be a paradox. In this article, I will explore this paradox using RA and see if it can shed some light on the paradox and the value of RA as a tool for research.
Here is the paradox that I found (note endotoxin and lipopolysaccharide are synonymous in this analysis) :
- endotoxin in the blood increases atherosclerosis in several species [claim 1716, 1760].
- alcohol increases endotoxin in the blood in several species [claims 3922, 1407, 1607 1619, 3886] (1407,1607 should be merged)
- alcohol decreases atherosclerosis in several species [claims 1709, 2307, 2308, 3043]
The following image provides an overview of the claims:
Figure 1: Diagram of the paradoxical claims. [create with RA graphing tool in next article version and explain how done]
As can be seen in the diagram, there are two paths from alcohol to atherosclerosis. One of these appears to decrease atherosclerosis and the other appears to increase it. This represents a contradiction.
Is this really a contradiction? How might it be resolved?:
- Possibly one of the claims is incorrect. This seems unlikely as all three claims are supported by high quality research and have been replicated in several species.
- Can it be resolved at a higher level of resolution.
- How much alcohol?
- What types of atherosclerosis and where?
In a series of short articles, I'll address some of these questions using the Research Analysis tools. The follow is a list of the articles - those without links are proposed articles.
- How does alcohol volume and type influence its effect on atherosclerosis?
- How does alcohol volume influence the levels of endotoxin in circulation?
- How do the endotoxin levels in circulation effect atherosclerosis?
- Does the paradox persist with regular low does alcohol consumption?
Then we can look at some more detailed molecular biology questions like:
- Is there a direct effect of alcohol and LPS on atherosclerotic lesions and foam cells?
- How do alcohol and LPS effect lipid profiles in circulation?
- How do alcohol and LPS effect immune cells and signalling profiles in circulation?