The British Heart Foundation says in the UK, there are around 100,000 hospital admissions each year due to heart attacks: that’s one every five minutes
An experimental treatment is raising hopes about repairing heart muscle after a heart attack. Researchers at the University of Cambridge say their new technique could stimulate the heart to mend damaged tissue, describing the early findings as encouraging.
Professor Bryan Williams, chief scientific and medical officer at the British Heart Foundation, stressed that “getting the human heart to repair itself is the holy grail for cardiologists.” Because adult heart cells can’t repair themselves once damaged, the team says the breakthrough is an important step towards a potentially curative treatment for heart disease. Promising results have been seen in mice, according to a study published in Nature Cardiovascular Research.
They said the treatment “reawakens” heart muscle cells, prompting them to divide and help repair damaged tissue. In a study of mice, it led to a stronger heartbeat and boosted the amount of blood pumped with each beat by about 10% after a heart attack, compared with mice given a mock treatment.
While it isn’t a complete cure, the Cambridge team says that even modest gains in heart function have been associated with lower mortality and an improved ability to manage everyday activities.
Researchers say there’s potential
The treatment uses mRNA therapy to briefly switch on two proteins in heart cells – Myc and Cyclin T1 – helping to stimulate repair of damaged heart tissue.
The researchers say the approach could potentially be used to treat people with heart failure. Around 200,000 people in the UK are diagnosed each year and, while current treatments can relieve symptoms and slow the disease’s progression, they cannot replace heart muscle that has already been lost.
‘These are really exciting results’ says author
Study co-senior author Professor Catherine Wilson said: “These are really exciting results. There’s no cure for heart failure, and our treatment could potentially have a meaningful impact on the quality of life of millions of people around the world.”
“We’re not just treating the symptoms of heart failure – this approach could help the heart to repair itself.” After a heart attack, the mRNA therapy was injected directly into the mice’s hearts, and its effectiveness was assessed using an echocardiogram – a scan similar to those used to view a baby in the womb.
Since the treatment is short-lived and localised, it is not expected to cause any permanent modification to the heart cells – designed to reduce the risk of overgrowth – and no adverse effects were seen in the mice.
When the mice were reassessed after 28 days and again at 12 weeks, the improvement in heart function was shown to be long-lasting. After a heart attack, an adult human heart can lose up to a billion heart muscle cells and, unlike many other organs, it can’t regenerate, meaning those cells are never replaced.
Sadly, losing these cells weakens the heart, which can cause scarring, lead to heart failure and, in the end, prove fatal.
With the global population increasing and heart failure cases rising, the cost of patient care is expected to climb steeply. The Cambridge team says that reactivating heart muscle cells could offer a promising new approach to treating heart failure.
The team is now working to refine the treatment and has received funding from the British Heart Foundation (BHF) to continue the work. Further trials in larger animal models, followed by studies in humans, are needed to fully confirm its safety and effectiveness.
‘Holy grail’
Professor Bryan Williams, chief scientific and medical officer at the BHF, said: “Getting the human heart to repair itself is the holy grail for cardiologists.
“The heart is easily repaired when we are babies in the womb, but our heart muscle cells lose the ability to regenerate and fix the heart shortly after we are born. That makes it exciting when studies like this are able to reignite regeneration in heart muscle cells.”
He added: “The gene therapy used by the researchers shows clear potential for heart patients. While the research is in mice, and still at an early stage, it is an important step forward towards therapies which could help repair the damage to the heart following a heart attack.”
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: www.dailyrecord.co.uk
