Chronic inflammation is usually thought to be unhealthy – but now researchers, using new genetic techniques, say it may sometimes protect against heart disease.
The Cambridge University study sheds new light on potential side-effects of powerful drugs now used to treat conditions such as arthritis.
The research centred on one key cause of inflammation, the substance interleukin-1. Some drugs are designed to combat the problem by controlling interleukin-1.
The findings come from genetic studies of more than a million people, including some who have naturally occurring limits on interleukin-1, placing them at low risk of getting arthritis.
But, it emerged, they had a 15% increased risk of developing coronary heart disease and a tendency to increased levels of unhealthy low density lipoprotein cholesterol.
There was also an increased risk of developing abdominal aortic aneurysm.
The findings were reported today in the Lancet Diabetes and Endocrinology.
Researcher Dr Daniel Freitag said: "The common view is that inflammation promotes the development of heart disease – we’ve shown that the truth is clearly more complicated.
" We need to be careful that drugs like anakinra that aim to tackle rheumatoid arthritis by inhibiting interleukin-1 do not have unintended consequences on an individual’s risk of heart disease."
The medical director of the British Heart Foundation Professor Peter Weissberg said the study did not yet show side-effects from the drug.
He said: "It is important to remember that this is not a study of an anti-arthritis drug but a gene that can mimic its effects.
"The effects of a gene are lifelong, whereas a drug only affects a person while it is being taken."
The Interleukin-1 Genetics Consortium. Cardiometabolic consequences of genetic up-regulation of the interleukin-1 receptor antagonist: Mendelian randomisation analysis. Lancet Diabetes and Endocrinology 6 February, 2015.
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