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.

[wjfox]

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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