Jab to stop damage after a heart attack


A jab that starts working in minutes could repair damage done by a heart attack and prevent risk of future heart failure.

Every year, some 270,000 people in Britain have a heart attack, typically when blood flow to the heart is reduced by a clot. This lack of oxygen-rich blood leads to the death of heart tissue.

The jab contains a protein, called insulin-like growth factor 1, that has been found to halt the damage and stimulate the growth of healthy new heart muscle.

Researchers at University College Cork ran a trial involving 47 heart attack survivors and found less scar tissue — areas where heart muscle has ‘died’ — formed in those given the jab compared with those given a dummy treatment.

A jab that starts working in minutes could repair damage done by a heart attack and prevent risk of future heart failure

Tests found it starts working within half an hour. The one-off injection must be given within 12 hours of an attack. This is when the heart becomes floppy and unable to pump blood properly round the body.

Damaged by the lack of oxygen, heart muscle can undergo adverse remodelling — it changes shape. It can quickly become thin, reducing the heart’s ability to contract. This can lead to heart failure.

Drugs such as beta blockers and ACE inhibitors can preserve heart function, but around 40 per cent of those with heart failure still die within a year of their first hospital admission. The jab may halt damage before heart failure occurs.

Insulin–like growth factor 1 (IGF-1) aids growth. Released in high quantities during childhood, synthetic versions are sometimes used to treat dwarfism and conditions such as muscular dystrophy.

The jab was tested on patients left with severely reduced ejection fraction — a measure of how much blood the heart pumps out with each contraction.

Between two and 12 hours after their heart attacks, 16 patients had a low dose of 1.5 nanograms of IGF-1 injected into the heart via a catheter fed through from an artery in the wrist.

Another 16 received a dose of 15 nanograms. The other 15 had a dummy drug. Those on the high dose of IGF-1 saw the biggest increase in diastolic volume, which suggests the heart is pumping blood more efficiently.

Some 270,000 people in Britain have a heart attack every year

MRI scans showed lower rates of scarring in those who got 15 nanograms of IGF-1 than those on the smaller dose or placebo.

The results were presented at the recent European Society of Cardiology conference in Paris.

Noel CAPLICE, a professor of cardiovascular sciences at University College Cork, who led the study, said: ‘When IGF-1 gets in the heart it stimulates receptors on cardiac cells. Within about 30 minutes, it sends a survival signal to the heart muscle cells.’

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He said if larger planned studies show similar benefit, the jab could be available within five years.

Professor Stephen Westaby, a heart surgeon at John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, said the jab is ‘an interesting approach and moving in the right direction’.

Meanwhile scientists are working on a one-off injection that may permanently lower raised cholesterol. It is designed to switch off a gene, PCSK9.

Those born with the gene switched off have naturally lower cholesterol. This is because the gene encourages production of a protein that helps block removal of harmful LDL cholesterol from the blood. The jab, being developed by AstraZeneca, has been successfully tested in animals.

How cancer could hold the key to better painkillers

Molecules produced by some cancers could provide the basis of a new painkiller.

The protein PD-L1, which is also made by skin and in the spinal cord, is thought to reduce the electrical activity in nerve cells that transmits pain signals.

In a study at Duke University in North Carolina, U.S., and Fudan University, Shanghai, scientists injected the protein into mice and found it increased pain tolerance.

The researchers also said that as immunotherapy to treat cancer may block PD-L1, testing patients for pain sensitivity could show if the cancer treatment was actually working.

A quick snooze is good for the brain

Afternoon naps are good for the brain, as long as they don’t last too long, say U.S. researchers. 

Based on two years of data from 3,000 men and women aged 65 and over, they found those who often napped for less than 90 minutes a day performed better on cognitive and memory tests.

Afternoon naps are good for the brain, as long as they don’t last too long

The worst performers were those who napped for longer than this, according to the study by the Center for Sleep and Circadian Neurobiology at the University of Pennsylvania. 

One theory is the longer the nap, the greater the likelihood of going into deeper sleep stages, which can leave people groggy when they wake up.

Scans make new finger joints more flexible

Finger joint replacement surgery is less successful than other joint ops, but this could soon be improved thanks to computer-generated models.

Surgery to replace the second joint in the finger can reduce pain, but the range of movement does not always improve, and in some cases may worsen. This is partly because it can be hard to get an artificial joint to fit precisely.

Now a team at Southampton University is testing a computer-generated model using information from CT and MRI scans and motion tracking technology.

This will help them see how the new joint will function before surgery and to place the new joint to provide the best outcome.

Smile if you want to halt a craving

Smiling might reduce food cravings, while frowning increases them. That’s the suggestion from a study reported in the journal Appetite.

According to researchers from the University of Wuppertal, Germany, this is due to the so-called facial feedback hypothesis, where facial movements affect our emotions.

Smiling might reduce food cravings, while frowning increases them, according to a study

Frowning, for instance, can make us feel unhappy. Previous research has shown that paralysis of the corrugator (frown) muscle using injections of botulinum toxin (Botox) can reduce symptoms of depression.

The latest research found that activating the smile muscle, the zygomaticus in the cheek, can improve mood and so reduces food cravings, too.

Food additive may damage your gut

Titanium dioxide, a common additive found in everything from chewing gum to bread, may stop the absorption of vital nutrients from food, according to researchers at Binghamton University in the U.S..

The scientists exposed cells from the small intestine to the equivalent of a meal’s worth of the additive over four hours (acute exposure), or three meals’ worth over five days (chronic exposure).

While acute exposure to titanium dioxide had little effect, chronic exposure reduced the tiny finger-like projections on the surface of the cells that help absorb key nutrients such as zinc, iron and fatty acids, and weakened the intestinal barrier — which helps stop infections.

People who drink fruit juice have smaller waists, on average 3.2cm smaller in women and 2.7cm in men, according to the National Diet and Nutrition Survey. 

Six years of data was analysed by the British Fruit Juice Association. The findings may reflect that those who drink juice tend to have a healthier diet.