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tmaly
I wonder how much of our diet contributes to these gut microbes?
epicureanideal
Atherosclerosis is, as I’ve read, a major cause of age related disease and death, so finding a cause and solution like this could be a major advancement in increasing healthspan. Another step toward longevity escape velocity.
searine
Paid for by taxpayers via 37 academic grants and fellowships primarily from the EU. Minority contributions are from the US (NIH). One corporation (Santander Bank).
BruceEel 

       "The new study shows that blood levels of imidazole propionate 
        are lower in people with diets rich in vegetables, fruits, whole grains, fish,        
        tea, and low-fat dairy products."
That's encouraging
greatgib
The kind of good news is that it looks like that eating a lot of fat is not an issue per-se if you manage to reduce your level of imidazole propionate!
elektor
"A team of Spanish scientists made a striking announcement 15 years ago: they were seeking thousands of volunteers among the employees of Banco Santander in Madrid: researchers wanted to study them in depth for decades, in order to understand the onset of cardiovascular disease in healthy people."

Is there a project like this one can join in the US? I've always wanted to contribute to a biomedical study.

nextos
The same metabolite, imidazole propionate (ImP), was already found to be associated with diabetes and heart failure. See for example this study in Nature Communications (2020): https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-19589-w.

I think the value of the current study in Nature is that "ImP administration to atherosclerosis-prone mice fed with chow diet was sufficient to induce atherosclerosis without altering the lipid profile, and was linked to activation of both systemic and local innate and adaptive immunity and inflammation.", i.e. they provided evidence of causality in a mechanistic way, with an intervention.

However, the newspaper article overplayed novelty. ImP and other metabolites from gut bacteria have already been linked to atherosclerosis.

lkuty
I wonder how this study can be reconciled with the carnivorous diet, which is apparently high in good fats and good cholesterol. There is also the notion of structured water and a deficient exclusion zone which could explain the presence of plaque in the vessels according to Thomas Cowan, for example. So, I'm not sure that the factors that prevent plaque formation are those indicated. Nutrition is a complex matter.
pretzellogician
"another shocking finding: atherosclerosis was ubiquitous"... yikes, can't wait till this inhibitor makes it to market.

Anyway, fascinating. As time goes on, more "lifestyle diseases" will be root-caused like this, rather than just being due to "personal choice" and "willpower". There are a ton of them: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lifestyle_disease

1. Ulcers: (stress?)... now root-caused to H.pylori infection.

2. Atherosclerosis (Bad diet? Lack of exercise?)... now maybe root-caused.

3. ?

Yes, sure, lifestyle has something to do with any or all of these. But how much seems debatable.