The Heart: Heart disease and stroke news and discussions

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Treating a heart attack before it happens

by Weizmann Institute of Science
Imagine getting treatment for a perfectly healthy young heart that would allow it to recover from an otherwise devastating injury decades later.

If you think this prospect seems farfetched, you are not alone. Until recently, Prof. Eldad Tzahor, whose lab at the Weizmann Institute of Science studies heart tissue regeneration, had also considered it science fiction. After all, cardiovascular diseases, which are humanity's leading cause of death, aren't generally perceived as something one can prepare for through preventive treatment.

But Tzahor and researchers in his lab have now activated a cellular mechanism in healthy mouse hearts that makes these mice resilient to future heart attacks—even when they occur months later.

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-08-heart.html

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Repairing the heart with silicon nanowires and stem cell cardiomyocytes
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-08- ... -cell.html
by Justin Jackson , Medical Xpress

A research group led by Clemson University has developed a strategy to improve heart repair using human pluripotent stem cell–derived cardiomyocytes combined with biodegradable and biocompatible electroconductive silicon nanowires.

In the paper, "Nanowired human cardiac organoid transplantation enables highly efficient and effective recovery of infarcted hearts," published in Science Advances, the authors detail how cells self-assemble to form organoids that mimic fundamental cardiac tissue–level functions and contain vascular networks that reduce the risk of apoptosis during oxygen deprivation.

Nanowired cardiac organoids, tiny living and contracting orbs of heart tissue with microscopic wires embedded, were fabricated from human pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes (hPSC-CMs) and cultured along with electroconductive silicon nanowires (e-SiNWs) so that the wires were integrated into the tissues. The engineered spheres were then injected into damaged and dying tissues of rat hearts.

While the use of cardiac organoids for tissue repair is not new, there have been limitations of low cell retention at the repair site, leading to moderate functional improvements and scalability issues.

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New heart syndrome identifies link among obesity, diabetes and kidney disease
Source: NBC News

Oct. 9, 2023, 5:01 AM EDT

As more Americans are being diagnosed with multiple chronic health problems at younger ages, for the first time, the American Heart Association is identifying a new medical condition that reflects the strong links among obesity, diabetes and heart and kidney disease.

According to an advisory released Monday, the goal in recognizing the condition — cardiovascular-kidney-metabolic syndrome, or CKM — is to get earlier diagnosis and treatment for people at high risk of dying from cardiovascular disease.

“Reducing the pipeline of individuals progressing to heart disease is our primary goal,” said the lead author of the advisory and an accompanying statement, Dr. Chiadi E. Ndumele, the director of obesity and cardiometabolic research in the division of cardiology at Johns Hopkins University. Right now, “we’re seeing the health consequences of all these conditions interacting and leading to earlier presentations with heart disease,” Ndumele said. Naming and describing CKM are “really a paradigm change.”

Increasing evidence shows how metabolic risk factors such as abdominal fat, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and high blood sugar can negatively affect other organs in the body. Dr. Pam R. Taub, a cardiologist, agreed that the new approach may be a “game changer” in how doctors treat patients.

Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/health/heart-he ... rcna119224

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Second Transplant Patient to Receive Pig Heart Hasn’t Seen Signs of Rejection
The 58-year-old patient underwent the experimental transplant just over a month ago and is currently working on rebuilding his strength.
By Adrianna Nine October 23, 2023
https://www.extremetech.com/science/sec ... -rejection

The second person in the world to receive a transplanted pig heart has officially gone more than a month without signs of rejection. Should the experimental procedure continue to prove successful, his experience could set a vital precedent for hopeful transplant recipients down the line.

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Wearable heart monitor ticks all the boxes for better healthcare: Study

31 OCT 2023

A new compact, lightweight, gel-free and waterproof electrocardiogram (ECG) sensor offers more comfort and less skin irritation, compared to similar heart monitoring devices on the market.

ECGs help manage cardiovascular disease – which affects around 4 million Australians and kills more than 100 people every day – by alerting users to seek medical care.

The team led by RMIT University in Australia has made the wearable ECG device that could be used to prevent heart attacks for people with cardiovascular disease, including in remote healthcare and ambulatory care settings. While most wearable ECG monitors typically weigh a few hundred grams, the RMIT device weighs only 10 grams.

The latest research is published in AIP Applied Physics Reviews.

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1006506



Credit: Peter Elango, RMIT University

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Promising cancer drug may effectively treat gout and heart disease
By Bronwyn Thompson
November 01, 2023

There are a lot of research eyes on the development of Polo-like kinase 1 (PLK1) inhibitors for cancer treatment right now, with several drugs currently in clinical trials and at least one in late-stage Phase III testing. But University of Cambridge scientists thought they’d try a different tack – using a PLK1 inhibitor to subdue a bad actor in inflammatory diseases – and, as they expected, it worked.

In the study, the researchers looked at the molecule NLRP3, which plays a pivotal role in tripping our innate immune system’s alarm in response to perceived dangerous foreign bodies, triggering inflammation to attack the microscopic intruders.

While this inflammasome is activated by a broad range of stimuli, it can also go into overdrive, which is at the root of many serious inflammatory diseases, including gout and heart failure.

https://newatlas.com/medical/cancer-dru ... t-disease/

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Everolimus-eluting scaffold found better than angioplasty for CLTI patients with infrapopliteal artery disease
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-11- ... ients.html

A multi-institution study led by the Prince of Wales Hospital and University of New South Wales, Australia, has found that everolimus-eluting resorbable scaffold treatment leads to better outcomes than angioplasty for chronic limb-threatening ischemia (CLTI) with infrapopliteal artery disease.

In a paper, "Drug-Eluting Resorbable Scaffold versus Angioplasty for Infrapopliteal Artery Disease," published in the New England Journal of Medicine, researchers investigated the effectiveness and safety of using an everolimus-eluting resorbable scaffold compared to angioplasty for the treatment of chronic limb-threatening ischemia (CLTI) and infrapopliteal artery disease.

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Synthetic molecule proves able to mitigate heart failure in translational study
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-11- ... ilure.html
by Maria Fernanda Ziegler, FAPESP

Researchers at the University of São Paulo (USP) in Brazil, partnering with Foresee Pharmaceuticals, a Taiwan and US-based biopharmaceutical company, have tested a synthetic molecule for the treatment of heart failure. The study has been published in the European Heart Journal. The theme was also highlighted in the magazine's editorial.

Heart failure is a condition in which the heart muscle cannot pump enough blood to meet the body's needs for blood and oxygen. It causes more deaths worldwide than any other disease, in the sense that other cardiovascular disorders tend to lead to heart failure, which affects over 2 million people in Brazil. A number of drugs can slow its progression, but currently no treatment exists that can reverse it even partially. A heart transplant is considered if the condition becomes severe.

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Key discovery opens new avenue to lowering cholesterol levels
By Paul McClure
November 09, 2023

https://newatlas.com/medical/cholestero ... reatments/
Researchers have identified a previously unknown step in the process by which dietary cholesterol is absorbed from the intestine into the bloodstream. The newfound pathway provides a potential new target for treating high cholesterol.

High cholesterol is a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease. While statins and dietary changes can lower cholesterol, researchers at UCLA Health have revealed how particular proteins, called Aster proteins, are key to the body’s processing of the fat-like substance and may have uncovered a novel approach to cholesterol management.

“Our results show that certain proteins in the Aster family play a critical role in moving cholesterol through the absorption and uptake process,” said Peter Tontonoz, corresponding author of the study. “The Aster pathway appears to be a potentially attractive target for limiting intestinal cholesterol absorption and reducing levels of plasma cholesterol.”

Intestinal absorption of dietary cholesterol has a major influence on blood cholesterol levels and is a complex, multi-step process. Free cholesterol is drawn into the plasma membrane of enterocytes, the cells that line the inner surface of the intestine, by a protein called Niemann-Pick C1 Like 1 (NPC1L1). It’s then moved into another part of the cell called the endoplasmic reticulum, where an enzyme called ACAT2 prepares the cholesterol for packaging and transport in a process called esterification. Cholesterol ester is packaged into chylomicrons for release into the bloodstream and delivery to tissues.

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One-dose drug reduced genetic bad cholesterol by 94% for almost a year
By Paul McClure
November 13, 2023
https://newatlas.com/medical/lepodisira ... st-a-year/

Researchers have conducted the first human trials of a new drug, lepodisiran, and found that a single injection reduced lipoprotein(a) – a ‘bad’ cholesterol with a genetic basis – to undetectable levels for almost a year. It has the potential to eliminate a risk factor for cardiovascular disease for which there is currently no treatment.

A type of cholesterol, lipoprotein(a) or Lp(a), shares some characteristics with low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, the so-called ‘bad’ cholesterol. Like LDL cholesterol, Lp(a) causes plaque to build up in arteries, reducing blood flow to the heart, brain, and other parts of the body, making it a risk factor for cardiovascular disease. However, because high Lp(a) levels are inherited, they’re largely unaffected by exercise, diet, or medications. There are no current treatments for high Lp(a).

Researchers have conducted the first human trials of a new therapeutic called lepodisiran and found that a single injection of the drug lowered Lp(a) to undetectable levels for almost a year by interfering with its mechanism of production.

“How do you beat a risk factor that’s largely genetic?” said Steven Nissen, lead author of the study. “One highly effective approach is to interfere with the gene, and that’s what lepodisiran and other new therapies are designed to do.”

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New drug given every few months reduces high blood pressure in trial
By Michael Irving
November 13, 2023
https://newatlas.com/medical/high-blood ... ew-months/

People with high blood pressure may soon be able to swap the daily pills for an injection every few months. A phase 2 clinical trial has shown that a drug called Zilebesiran can drastically reduce blood pressure for long periods of time with no side effects.

According to the American Heart Association’s 2023 report, some 46.7% of American adults have high blood pressure. If untreated, the condition can lead to a variety of complications, including an increased risk of heart disease. It’s most commonly treated with oral medication like ACE inhibitors or calcium channel blockers, which need to be taken once or twice a day.

An experimental drug could help reduce that disease management burden by only needing to be administered every few months. Administered via subcutaneous injection, similar to insulin for diabetics, Zilebesiran is an RNA interference agent that targets a liver hormone called AGT that regulates blood pressure.

The current trial investigated Zilebesiran’s safety and efficacy in 377 patients with mild-to-moderate high blood pressure, defined as systolic blood pressure of between 135 and 160 mmHg. These patients were randomized into five groups, receiving either 150, 300 or 600 mg of Zilebesiran every six months, 300 mg every three months, or a placebo.

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Biodegradable patch developed to fix congenital heart defects in infants
By Paul McClure
November 28, 2023
https://newatlas.com/medical/tissue-eng ... t-defects/

Researchers have developed a biodegradable patch engineered from human cells that could one day be used to correct infant congenital heart defects, limiting the need for multiple invasive surgeries and outlasting current non-living, non-degradable patches.

Globally, congenital heart defects (CHD) affect around nine in every 1,000 babies born. CHD refers to a group of defects present at birth that are caused by the heart not developing properly during pregnancy. While simple defects often don’t need treatment, some complex defects require invasive surgeries performed over a period of years, usually starting in the first year of life.

Several of these surgeries require the implantation of a heart patch, currently made from non-living, non-degradable materials that don’t grow with the patient’s heart and are prone to fail due to an inability to integrate with the heart tissue. To address these issues, researchers at the University of Colorado (CU) Anschutz Medical Campus have developed a biodegradable patch made from the patient’s own cells that is designed to correct CHD, limit invasive surgeries, and outlast current patches.

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Patients with rare heart condition given lifeline through new drug
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-01- ... eline.html
by University College London

People diagnosed with a life-threatening cardiac condition have been given new hope, thanks to a ground-breaking new drug that protects the heart developed by researchers from UCL and the Royal Free Hospital.

The trial results, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, show that patients with transthryretin amyloid cardiomyopathy (ATTR-CM) benefitted significantly when they took the drug Acoramidis.

ATTR-CM is the most commonly diagnosed form of amyloidosis. If left untreated, clumps of protein build up on the heart that prevent it from working properly, ultimately leading to heart failure and death within three to six years.

In the trial, 632 patients with ATTR-CM were given Acoramidis or a placebo for 30 months. The drug works by stabilizing the transthyretin protein to stop it falling apart, thereby preventing amyloid formation.

Results indicated that the drug had clear benefits in terms of mortality, morbidity and physical function compared to the placebo.

UCL's Professor Julian Gillmore, primary investigator of the global trial from UCL Division of Medicine and the Royal Free Hospital, said, "The results from the study are exciting for patients and researchers, as we now have a further effective treatment option for ATTR-CM. In every measure, patients receiving Acoramidis did significantly better than those on the placebo, from a reduction in mortality and cardiovascular hospitalizations to improved physical functioning as measured by a walking test. We are hoping that this drug will become widely available to patients with ATTR-CM by the end of 2024."

Professor Gillmore added, "ATTR-CM used to be thought of as a rare cause of heart failure but the number of people being diagnosed as well as those being diagnosed early in the disease course has dramatically increased, largely due to improvements in imaging which themselves were developed at the National Amyloidosis Center."'

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Risk calculator helps personalize care for heart failure patients
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-01- ... ients.html
by University of Utah Health Sciences

Late-stage failure of the left side of the heart is an often-fatal condition affecting hundreds of thousands of people in the U.S. alone. A mechanical heart pump can be a lifesaving intervention for such patients, but the surgery to implant the pump can be risky.

One of the most serious risks is right heart failure, in which the right side of the heart becomes unable to pump enough blood to the lungs. Identifying patients who have a high risk of right heart failure can help doctors better prepare patients for heart pump placement. But predicting who is most at risk has proven difficult.

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Researchers design gel from wood pulp to heal damaged heart tissue, improve cancer treatments
https://phys.org/news/2024-02-gel-wood- ... issue.html
by University of Waterloo

You can mend a broken heart this Valentine's Day now that researchers have invented a new hydrogel that can be used to heal damaged heart tissue and improve cancer treatments.

University of Waterloo chemical engineering researcher Dr. Elisabeth Prince teamed up with researchers from the University of Toronto and Duke University to design the synthetic material made using cellulose nanocrystals, which are derived from wood pulp. The material is engineered to replicate the fibrous nanostructures and properties of human tissues, thereby recreating its unique biomechanical properties.

The research was recently published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

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How a standard blood test can predict a heart attack
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-02- ... heart.html
by Uppsala University

Using the results of a standard blood test and an online tool, you can find out if you are at increased risk of having a heart attack within six months. The tool has been developed by a research group at Uppsala University in the hope of increasing patients' motivation to change their lifestyles.

Their paper is published in the journal Nature Cardiovascular Research.

Heart attacks are the most common cause of death in the world and are increasing globally. Many high-risk people are not identified or do not take their preventive treatment.

Now, researchers led by Professor Johan Sundström at Uppsala University have found that heart attacks can be predicted with a standard blood test. The problem, according to the researchers, is that risk factors have previously been verified in studies involving five to ten years of follow-up, where only factors that are stable over time can be identified.

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Flexy cratered wires could reduce infections in heart failure patients
By Ben Coxworth
February 15, 2024

If someone is already suffering from heart failure, they certainly shouldn't have to deal with a serious infection on top of that. A new type of electrical wire, designed for powering implanted heart pumps, could help keep that from happening.

When a heart failure patient is on the waiting list for a donor heart, it's not uncommon for them to receive an implanted electric pump that keeps their existing heart beating normally until it can be replaced. That pump is powered by a connected battery, which is worn on the outside of the body.

The 7-mm-thick cable that connects the two devices runs through a hole in the patient's skin, which is a potential access point for harmful bacteria.

https://newatlas.com/medical/thin-flexi ... t-failure/