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More on Underdog Pharma: https://www.fightaging.org/archives/2019/11/an-interview-wit...

"We've taken a well-known and extremely safe compound, and have created novel derivatives that can specifically target the toxic biomolecule that drives the development of atherosclerosis, the cause of most heart attacks and strokes."

I'm excited for this one. Seems like a reasonable possibility for success addressing a huge killer.

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> The company is focused on a class of molecule known cyclodextrins, and have candidates capable of efficiently binding and sequestering 7-ketocholesterol. This form of oxidized cholesterol is of great importance to the progression of atherosclerosis, and possibly other age-related conditions as well.

The thing is cyclodextrins have been linked to causing deafness, in as little as a week. As per https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5676048/ and https://www.wsj.com/amp/articles/deaf-or-death-in-drug-trial...

Heart disease or hearing – tough trade-offs. Here’s to hoping that they’ve engineered a novel compound without any of the downsides.

Are they engineering the macrophages to produce the enzyme? How does it work?

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