Toronto: Researchers have developed a potential drug to treat heart attack and prevent heart failure — for which no cure currently exists. The study noted that heart attacks triggered inflammatory responses that cause a scar in the heart which eventually leads to incurable heart failure.
The potential drug developed by the researchers, including those from the University of Guelph in Canada, would prevent scarring, and eliminate the need for patients to take possibly debilitating heart medication for the rest of their lives. The researchers said that the drug works based on our body’s natural clock called the circadian rhythm found in all cells of the body. “This research is really exciting because it opens the door to use circadian medicine therapies to heal heart attacks after they occur and to prevent the subsequent development of heart failure,” said Tami Martino, co-author of the study from the University of Guelph.
Martino and her team used the drug called SR9009 to target a key component of the body clock, and disrupt the expression of genes which trigger adverse immune responses after a heart attack.
When the researchers conducted experiments with the drug in mice, it reduced the production of a cellular sensor called the NLRP3 inflammasome which was behind tissue scarring.
—PTI
