How red wine helps keep heart diseases at bay

Natural substance found in red wine, resveratrol, inhibits the formation of inflammatory factors that generates cardiovascular diseases.

A number of research projects have actually demonstrated that the natural product resveratrol, present in red wine, has a protective effect against heart diseases.

According to research team led by Junior Professor Andrea Pautz and Professor Hartmut Kleinert of the Mainz University Medical Center, the natural substance binds to the regulator protein KSRP and activates it. KSRP reduces the stability of messenger RNA (mRNA) in connection with a number of inflammatory mediators and thus inhibits their synthesis.

Pautz said that they now knew more precisely how resveratrol inhibit the formation of the inflammatory factors that trigger cardiovascular diseases. Cardiovascular disorders, such as myocardial infarction and strokes, frequently occur in association with chronic inflammatory diseases, such as arthritis. The natural substance resveratrol thus has major therapeutic potential, particularly when it comes to the treatment of inflammatory diseases that can cause serious damage to the cardiovascular system.

The results have been published in the scientific journal Nucleic Acids Research.