30 Jun Pathway That May Grow New Blood Vessels After Heart Attack Discovered
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Dr. Mark Mercola
Mark Mercola, Ph.D.
Professor, Development, Aging and Regeneration Program, Sanford-Burnham-Prebys Medical Discovery Institute
La Jolla, California 92037
Professor, Stanford Cardiovascular Institute and Stanford University School of Medicine
Stanford, CA, 94305,
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: Heart disease, especially after heart attack (myocardial infarction) is a major cause of death worldwide, accounting for over 13% of all human mortality. There is a major search for ways to treat the immediate cause or lessen the effect of a heart attack. One way researchers have considered is to boost the blood vessels that nourish the heart muscle. The heart muscle is nourished by many small blood vessels. We found a normal protein that acts as a high level regulator of blood vessel formation in the heart. This protein, known as RBPJ, suppresses the factors that make vessels grow. Therefore, we found that inhibiting this protein made more vessels, and consequently protected the hearts from the damage of a heart attack.
MedicalResearch.com: What should readers take away from your report?
Response: That we discovered a possible therapeutic target to lessen the damaged caused by heart attacks. Now the challenge will be to make a drug against this protein that works safely and effectively.
MedicalResearch.com: What recommendations do you have for future research as a result of this study?
Response: The most important thing is to figure out how to develop a therapy based on inhibiting this protein in a safe and effective way.
The second important thing is to fully understand why it is beneficial – there might be other beneficial effects in addition to growing more blood vessels in the heart.
MedicalResearch.com: Is there anything else you would like to add?
Response: Just that we are grateful to the National Institutes of Health for the grant support that funded this research, and to the many laboratories at Sanford-Burnham-Prebys; Stanford University; Washington University, St Louis; and University of California, San Diego that contributed to the project. In particular it is important to acknowledge Ramon Diaz-Trelles,PhD, the staff scientist who performed most of the work, and key collaborators Pilar Ruiz-Lozano, PhD (Stanford) and Stacey Rentschler, MD (Washington, U.), Pedro Cabrales, PhD (UCSD) who each made very important contributions to the project.
MedicalResearch.com: Thank you for your contribution to the MedicalResearch.com community.
Citation:
Ramón Díaz-Trelles, Maria Cecilia Scimia, Paul Bushway, Danh Tran, Anna Monosov, Edward Monosov, Kirk Peterson, Stacey Rentschler, Pedro Cabrales, Pilar Ruiz-Lozano, Mark Mercola. Notch-independent RBPJ controls angiogenesis in the adult heart. Nature Communications, 2016; 7: 12088 DOI: 10.1038/NCOMMS12088
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Last Updated on June 30, 2016 by Marie Benz MD FAAD