Researchers have discovered that a protein known to regulate cholesterol is also linked to the formation of the type of blood clot known as thrombosis that can lead to heart attacks and strokes.

They believe that by developing drugs that can control the important protein, called LXR, they will be able to prevent thrombosis and also control cholesterol levels.

It could help the fight against heart and circulatory diseases, which kill 191,000 people a year in Britain – accounting for one in three deaths in the country.

Professor Jon Gibbins, Director of Reading University’s Institute for Cardiovascular and Metabolic Research, who led the research, said: “While blood clotting is essential to prevent bleeding, inappropriate clotting within the circulation, known as thrombosis, is the trigger for heart attacks and strokes – which kill more people in the UK each year than any other disease.