Study of the Arachidonate 5-Lipoxygenase Enzyme in Affecting the Risk for Coronary Heart Disease

The focus of this study is to better understand why some adults develop heart disease and
others do not. There are many known factors which play a role in causing heart disease,
such as diet and lifestyle. Also, we know that inflammation, a process in the body which
causes painful joints in arthritis or swelling at a site if injury, also contributes to
heart disease. In particular, we will address whether leukotrienes, a component of
inflammation, is involved in promoting heart disease. We will study this by giving subjects
at high risk for heart disease a drug called montelukast which causes leukotrienes to have a
reduced effect in the body. In addition for comparison, we will give other subjects a
placebo for the same amount of time. These subjects will then be crossed-over and will
receive either montelukast or placebo depending on which treatment they received first. We
will compare these subjects using blood tests to see if subjects who take montelukast show
signs of less inflammation caused by early heart disease as compared to subjects who do not.