Posted on 04/08/2021 12:19:12 PM PDT by Red Badger
Scientists at the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute in Sydney have discovered a critical new gene that it is hoped could help human hearts repair damaged heart muscle after a heart attack.
Researchers have identified a genetic switch in zebrafish that turns on cells allowing them to divide and multiply after a heart attack, resulting in the complete regeneration and healing of damaged heart muscle in these fish.
It’s already known that zebrafish can heal their own hearts, but how they performed this incredible feat remained unknown, until now. In research recently published in the prestigious journal, Science, the team at the Institute drilled down into a critical gene known as Klf1 that previously had only been identified in red blood cells. For the first time they discovered it plays a vital role in healing damaged hearts.
Dr. Kazu Kikuchi, who led this world first research, said he was astonished by the findings.
“Our research has identified a secret switch that allows heart muscle cells to divide and multiply after the heart is injured. It kicks in when needed and turns off when the heart is fully healed. In humans where damaged and scarred heart muscle cannot replace itself, this could be a game-changer,” Dr. Kikuchi explains.
“With these tiny little fish sharing over 70% of human genes, this really has the potential to save many, many lives and lead to new drug developments.”
The gene works by making remaining uninjured heart muscle cells more immature and changing their metabolic wiring. This allows them to divide and make new cells.
When the gene was removed, the zebrafish heart lost its ability to repair itself after an injury such as a heart attack, which pinpointed it as a crucial self-healing tool.
Professor Bob Graham, Head of the Institute’s Molecular Cardiology and Biophysics Division, says they hope to utilize this world-first discovery, made in collaboration with the Garvan Institute of Medical Research, to transform the treatment of heart attack patients and other heart diseases.
“The team has been able to find this vitally important protein that swings into action after an event like a heart attack and supercharges the cells to heal damaged heart muscle. It’s an incredible discovery,” says Prof Graham.
“The gene may also act as a switch in human hearts. We are now hoping further research into its function may provide us with a clue to turn on regeneration in human hearts, to improve their ability to pump blood around the body.”
Importantly, the team also found that the Klf1 gene played no role in the early development of the heart and that its regenerative properties were only switched on after a heart injury.
Professor Graham added: “This is clear evidence that the regeneration you get after a heart injury is not the same as what happens during the development of the heart but involves an entirely different pathway; an issue that has been debated for years.”
Reference: 8 April 2021, Science.
After eight fruitful years, Dr. Kikuchi left the Australian based Institute in 2019 to continue his work back in his homeland, Japan. But he continues to work closely with the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute to jointly advance the zebrafish heart project to the next phase.
It was never a “prestigious journal” but it used to be a good place to see where things were trending. Lighter that P.N.A.S. but far more technical than Scientific American. In the 80s-90s they went political and ceased any pretense of scientific objectivity.
Thank you!
Be careful with the amiodorone. Some people have no reaction and some can have bad reactions. My wife had a very bad reaction that took 4 hospitalizations before her heart quack realized he had prescribed too much. What made things so bad was not one of the quacks involved during the first three hospital stays ever even bothered to call her heart doc. They all thought she had diverticulitis...
I found out there’s an actual name for it: the “full metal jacket“. I like it!
. . critical new gene . . it is hoped could . . . this could be a game-changer,” . . . has the potential . . . they hope to utilize this . . . . may also act as a switch . . . . We are now hoping . . may provide us . .
Hype.
You ever see a Pulmonologist to find out whether you might be an apnea case?
I had a solo flight of a-fib some years back. They wanted to put me on statins. A friend, a doctor of respiratory medicine, said “Wait until you’ve had a sleep study done.” I took that advice.
I’m the second-worst apnea case in my pulmonologist’s practice. Apnea was gonna kill me, and I had no idea.
If you’ve had a cardiac event, and your cardiologist didn’t find a root cause, get an in-clinic sleep study, and make sure you don’t have a deeper, undiagnosed issue.
Sorry for your wife’s problems. I’ve had no problems with it, so far. Thanks for the heads-up.
“Howdya know when a Zebrafish has a heart attack?”
*****************************************************
There’s a manifest numbness/pain that radiates down its left fin.
No. But it used to be a good “surface level” read. Usually with links for those of us who wanted to see the original source/study/etc...
Now, it’s just getting sloppy and more tabloid every time I bother to go back there.
Sorry, only one organ per gene.......................
I had this burning sensation for weeks and I passed it off as ‘heartburn’, and ate Tums like candy. Until one day at work I had it so bad I couldn’t sit up at my desk, so I left work and went straight to my doctor’s. I COULDN’T BREATHE IT WAS SO BAD. they called an ambulance and said you’ve got to go to the hospital NOW!.................
I’m glad you made it thru that.
They gave me one of those monitor devices that measures your pulse and respiration while you sleep a while back and I used it for a week or so.
Nothing ever came of it. My wife says I snore like a freight train, though.................
Moderna and AstraZeneca are collaborating on a regenerative treatment for heart disease, comprising injecting mRNA encoding the VEGF protein into the diseased heart muscle.
“ Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) is a signalling protein that promotes the growth of new blood vessels. VEGF forms part of the mechanism that restores the blood supply to cells and tissues when they are deprived of oxygenated blood due to compromised blood circulation.”
It might be just far enough along that it could help, unlike Zebrafish genes/proteins. In late 2020 ( see the following link, section 6, lower part of page 7) they were still enrolling patients in phase 2a “safety and efficacy”.
Long shot that this is useful, but OTOH mRNA therapeutics are a revolutionary new modality. And no, mRNA doesn’t change your DNA, unless you have a lot of other stuff going on such as a retrovirus infection. IMO using it to save lives, isn’t playing God, it is using what God gave us.
In before the haters and biology Kruger-Dunning know-it-alls.
Well they need to keep looking.
We need to find genes that allows Republicans to grow a spine and a pair and allows Democrats to grow a brain.
https://res.mdpi.com/d_attachment/cells/cells-10-00187/article_deploy/cells-10-00187-v2.pdf%E2%80%9D
https://res.mdpi.com/d_attachment/cells/cells-10-00187/article_deploy/cells-10-00187-v2.pdf
Probably means this research write up was rejected by a whole lot of more serious journals...
A simple pulse/oximeter would alarm if your blood oxygen level fell too low, but that’s like the idiot light that tells you your car has overheated: by the time it comes on, your engine is already too hot.
A more advanced unit keeps a record you can load up and see a continuous chart of blood oxygen throughout the night; that would reveal whatever dips there might be that weren’t severe enough to trigger the alarm.
For a definitive confirmation one way or the other, an in-clinic sleep study is the gold standard, and the heavy snoring is a caution flag. I’d seek a consultation, and see.
One other sidebar, my pulmonologist said my test results shocked her; that, out of a lineup of 100 people she’d have never picked me out as a possible apnea patient. And yet, I am, and a severe case, at that.
I call it ‘slapnea’........That’s what my wife does when I snore and wake her up!...............
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