Scientists are developing a pill that triggers the heart to self repair itself after an attack in a major step towards one of medical research’s holy grails. The researchers in Britain claim they are only about a decade from perfecting a way of persuading the heart to rejuvenate, a process that five years ago was thought to be impossible.
It means when a heart attack happens the blood vessels and muscles around the heart could rebuild themselves reducing the long term damage and helping to greatly improve the quality of life of the victim.
The University College London researchers discovered that a protein – key to heart growth in young, known as thymosin Beta 4 – appears to be able to reawaken stem cells in the organ of adults that are dormant.
They now want to start human trials in a few years time after mice experiments have showed it improved the hearts performance as much as 25%. Research leader Professor Paul Riley said he can see a potential risk patient because of family history or warning signs take a pill like statin which would prompt the heart to heal itself in case of an attack.
It was thought until just recently that unlike other organs the heart did not have the ability to heal itself. That meant that once damage was caused due to a heart attack patients had to live with that damage and could cause their quality of life to be severely hampered. Over three quarters of a million in the UK alone live with heart failure that makes everyday menial tasks like dressing and getting out of bed exhausting at best.
