Scientists are testing a drug that can mend a broken heart. Experiments found the medicine, which is usually used to treat cancer, shrank enlarged and diseased hearts back down to near normal size, allowing them to work properly again. Now the drug is about to be given to human heart patients for the first time. In the future, it could be used to prevent and treat heart failure\u2013 one of the biggest causes of hospital admissions and death. The drug\u2019s powerful effect could provide a godsend for some of the millions worldwide suffering from heart failure, in which a weakened heart struggles to pump blood around the body. Treatments range from drugs to transplants but with up to 40 per cent of those affected dying within a year of diagnosis, it has a worse survival rate than many cancers. The medicine tested belongs to a family of drugs called histone deacetylases, which are already used to treat tumours. But research from the University of Texas\u2019s Southwestern heart centre shows that they also temper autophagy, a process in which cells eat their own proteins. Autophagy allows cells to tidy up unwanted debris. But when it gets out of control, too many vital parts are eaten and the cells die. In hearts, this can further damage those which are already diseased. The researchers gave the drug to mice with high levels of autophagy and enlarged hearts that could fail, with incredible results. Joseph Hill, the heart centre\u2019s chief of cardiology, said: \u201cThe heart decreased back to near its normal size, and heart function that had previously been declining went back to normal. That is a powerful observation where disease regression, not just disease prevention, was seen.\u201d He hopes the drug could be used to repair hearts damaged by heart attacks and other forms of disease. Dr Hill told the Daily Mail: \u201cThere is a huge need for new treatments for heart failure. The final common pathway for most types of heart disease, high blood pressure, heart attacks or valve disease is heart failure and it is sky-rocketing.\u201d He is about to start small, preliminary tests on heart patients. If successful, larger-scale trials will follow. The tests that led to the breakthrough began \u2018decades ago\u2019 on yeast, said the researchers, but only now does it seem likely it can be adapted to the human heart. Dr Hill said: \u201cThis is one of those exciting, but rare, examples where an important finding made originally in yeast moved into mouse models and is soon moving to humans.\u201d The approach is one of several being explored around the world. <\/p>\n
FEAR OF HEART ATTACK<\/span>
\nPeople with an intense fear of suffering a fatal heart attack could unwittingly be putting themselves at greater risk, researchers have warned. Those who were most afraid were four times more likely to have higher levels of inflammation in the body than people who were less fearful, according to a study by a team at Imperial College London. This inflammation results in biological changes that can damage the heart and increase the risk of a heart attack, says a report in the European Heart Journal. <\/p>\n\nFor More Updates, follow us on Facebook<\/a> and Twitter<\/a><\/font><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Scientists are testing a drug that can mend a broken heart. Experiments found the medicine, which is usually used to treat cancer, shrank enlarged and diseased hearts back down to near normal size, allowing them to work properly again. Now the drug is about to be given to human heart patients for the first time. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10377","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10377","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10377"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10377\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10377"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10377"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10377"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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