Cathy Wilson’s group in the Department of Pharmacology, working in collaboration with QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute, Brisbane, and AstraZeneca, have developed an exciting experimental treatment that promotes the regeneration of damaged heart muscle following a heart attack in mice. The treatment ‘reawakens’ heart muscle cells so they start to divide and help repair damaged muscle. In the study, this produced a stronger heartbeat and increased the amount of blood pumped through the heart with each heartbeat by around 10%, compared with mice that received a mock treatment, following a heart attack. While this was not a full cure, even small improvements to heart function have been linked to lower mortality in patients and a better ability to carry out daily activities.
The treatment uses mRNA therapy to temporarily activate two proteins inside heart cells - Myc and Cyclin T1. Reassessment after 28 days and after 12 weeks showed that the improvement in heart function in the mice was long-lasting. Around 200,000 people in the UK are diagnosed with heart failure each year and while current treatments can reduce symptoms and slow the progression of heart disease, they can’t regenerate heart muscle that has already been lost. While much more work is needed, this has the potential in future to be used to treat patients with heart failure.
These are really exciting results. There’s no cure for heart failure, and our treatment could potentially have a meaningful impact on the quality of life of millions of people around the world."
Dr Catherine Wilson
Associate Professor at the University of Cambridge’s Department of Pharmacology and Gurdon Institute, co-senior author of the study
The heart is easily repaired when we are babies in the womb, but our heart muscle cells lose the ability to regenerate and fix the heart shortly after we are born. That makes it exciting when studies like this are able to reignite regeneration in heart muscle cells. Getting the human heart to repair itself is the holy grail for cardiologists."
Professor Bryan Williams
Chief Scientific and Medical Officer at the British Heart Foundation
The team is now working to refine the treatment and has received funding from the British Heart Foundation to continue the work.
The research was published in the journal Nature Cardiovascular Research
Read more about this achievement on the University of Cambridge website