Inflammatory Targets for the Treatment of Atherosclerosis

Abstract Atherosclerosis is a complex disease of the aterial wall and is the primary cause of coronary artery disease, peripheral vascular disease, and stroke and, thus, a leading cause of death worldwide. Despite many clinically useful treatment options for managing atherosclerosis in at risk patients, there remains a high residual risk for major adverse cardiovascular events. Recently, an improved appreciation of the role of inflammation play in the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis has revealed many druggable targets suitable for small molecule intervention. Here in, we present select evidence, both clinical and preclinical, for small molecule druggable anti-inflammatory targets. While the optimization and clinical programs against these targets may not have been initially directed toward their potential to treat atherosclerosis, the availability of high-quality chemical matter against a variety of targets should allow for clinical proof-of-concept studies to be conducted and hypotheses tested.