Heart attack damage repaired using gene therapy

Heart attacks cause cells in the affected area to stop beating and become encased in scar tissue, but researchers believe the damage may not be permanent.
Using a combination of genes they were able to coax the scar-forming cells into a state which closely resembles healthy, beating heart cells, suggesting the condition is reversible.
The scientists, from the Gladstone Institutes in America, had already demonstrated their technique on mice but have taken a step further by doing the same to human heart cells in a laboratory.
The study is a "proof of concept" that the scar-forming cells, known as fibroblasts, "can be reprogrammed successfully into beating heart cells," and mend the heart from within, they said.
Dr Deepak Srivastava, who led the study, explained: "Fibroblasts make up about 50 per cent of all cells in the heart and therefore make up a vast pool of cells that could one day be harnessed and reprogrammed to create new muscle.
"We've now laid a solid foundation for developing a way to reverse the damage – something previously thought impossible – and changing the way that doctors may treat heart attacks in the future."
The researchers reported last year that by injecting three genes, known as GMT, into the hearts of live mice, they could turn the scar-forming fibroblasts into beating heart cells.
The new heart muscle cells beat in time with neighbouring cells and improved the heart's ability to pump blood around the animals' bodies.
Attempts to replicate the findings in human heart tissue initially failed, but by adding a further two genes to the mix the team was able to achieve similar results.
Dr Ji-dong Fu, one of the authors of the study, which was published in the Stem Cell Reports journal, said: "While almost all the cells in our study exhibited at least a partial transformation, about 20 per cent of them were capable of transmitting electrical signals — a key feature of beating heart cells.
"Success rates might be improved by transforming the fibroblasts within living hearts rather than in a dish – something we also observed during our initial experiments in mice."
The researchers intend to test the five-gene mixture in larger live mammals, such as pigs, and eventually to develop a combination of drug-like chemicals which could achieve the same effect but would be safer and easier to administer.
Figures released by the British Heart Foundation last year revealed that the number of patients who are surviving heart attacks has increased dramatically over the past decade.
Some 70 per cent of women and 68 per cent of men in England now live through the ordeal, compared with just a third of all cases in the 1970s.
However, about 750,000 people in the UK are now living with heart failure, a condition where the heart muscle is so damaged by a severe heart attack that it cannot function properly, which kills three quarters of patients within five years.
Professor Jeremy Pearson, Associate Medical Director at the British Heart Foundation, said: “This research represents a small but significant step forward. Last year these scientists had a real breakthrough when they turned fibroblasts - the cells that form scarred heart tissue - in the hearts of mice into beating heart cells, by injecting them with a ‘cocktail’ of different genes.
“Now, using a different combination of genes, they have managed to turn human fibroblasts into beating heart cells in a culture dish. This process is still a long way from the clinic, but advances like this bring us closer to the likelihood that we could one day use these techniques to mend human hearts.”

Turmeric compounds improve heart health

Turmeric compounds improve heart health as much as exercise.

A chemical that naturally occurs in turmeric root appears to improve heart health as much as moderate aerobic exercise.

Turmeric root has been an important component of traditional Asian medicinal systems for hundreds of years. In recent decades, scientific studies have confirmed the potent anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidant properties of the trio of turmeric chemicals known as "curcuminoids," which give the root its distinctive yellow-orange color. Although only one of these chemicals is properly known as "curcumin," the name is commonly used to refer to all of them collectively.

The three new studies all compared the effects of exercise and curcumin on heart health and postmenopausal women over an eight-week period. All the studies were randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled. Curcumin was delivered by means of colloidal nanoparticles.

Can turmeric prevent heart disease?

In the first study, researchers assigned 32 women to either take a curcumin supplement, engage in moderate aerobic exercise training, or undergo no intervention at all. The researchers measured participants' vascular endothelial function - the responsiveness of the layer of cells that line the blood vessels, a key indicator of overall cardiovascular health - both at the beginning and end of the study. They found that while there was no improvement in the control group, endothelial function significantly increased in both the exercise and curcumin groups. Most surprisingly, the improvement in the two experimental groups was identical.

The second study examined curcumin's effects on the responsiveness of arteries to changes in blood pressure ("arterial compliance"), another key measure of cardiovascular health. In this study, 32 women were randomly assigned to receive either a curcumin supplement or a placebo pill, or to undergo an exercise routine plus either a curcumin or placebo pill. The researchers found no significant improvement in the control group, significant (and equivalent) improvements in both the exercise-only and curcumin-only groups, and the greatest improvement among participants who exercised and also took the supplements.

In the final study, researchers examined the effects of exercise and curcumin on the rate of age-related degeneration of the heart's left ventricle. 45 participants were randomly assigned into one of the same four groups used in the second study.

The researchers once again found that both exercise and curcumin produced significant increases in heart health. In this study, however, curcumin alone did not appear to provide any benefit. Specifically, brachial systolic blood pressure (SBP) decreased among participants who exercised, whether or not they took curcumin. In addition, heart-rate-corrected aortic augmentation index (AIx) and aortic SBP both decreased significantly only among participants who both exercised and took curcumin.

"Regular ingestion of curcumin could be a preventive measure against cardiovascular disease in postmenopausal women," the authors of the first study wrote. "Furthermore, our results suggest that curcumin may be a potential alternative ... for patients who are unable to exercise."

Curcumin is best absorbed from turmeric root, rather than from supplements.

Perspiration contains natural, safe antibiotics that kill dangerous germs

Sweating is just a nasty annoyance to many modern-day people. Sure, it keeps you from overheating during exercise or if you are exposed to extremely hot weather. But most often, perspiration is seen as a negative body secretion to be stopped whenever possible with chemical-laden antiperspirants. On the positive side, many traditional cultures have used induced sweating - such as sitting in sweat lodges - to benefit health. It's been mostly assumed that the physical benefits from sweating are the result of toxins released in sweat.

But now comes information on how the incredible human body uses the sweating process to help protect health in another way. Sweat contains amazing disease fighting chemicals. An international team of scientists has discovered how a natural antibiotic called dermcidin, produced by our skin during perspiration can destroy tuberculosis germs and other dangerous pathogens.

Although about 1,700 types of these natural antibiotics are known to exist, they are rarely discussed -- and this is the first time researchers have come up with a detailed understanding of how they work. The researchers from the University of Edinburgh and from Goettingen, Tuebingen and Strasbourg, uncovered the atomic structure of dermcidin, allowing them to pinpoint for the first time what makes this natural compound so efficient in destroying disease-causing germs.

Their new study, just published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, shows that sweat spreads highly efficient antibiotics onto skin to protect our bodies from dangerous disease-causing "bugs." So if you scratch or cut yourself or get a mosquito bite, antibiotic agents secreted in sweat glands, including dermcidin, immediately and efficiently kill invading germs if perspiration reaches them.

What's more, the scientists say these natural substances, known as antimicrobial peptides (AMPs), are more effective in the long-term than traditional antibiotics. The reason? Germs are incapable of quickly developing resistance against them. Unfortunately, germs are capable of mounting resistance to many antibiotics created by Big Pharma and this has caused the development of so-called superbugs.

It turns out that natural antimicrobials found in sweat can attack bacteria through cell walls which bacteria can't modify quickly to resist attack. The scientists were able to determine dermcidin can adapt to extremely variable types of membranes, too. That's probably the reason why dermcidin is such an efficient broad-spectrum antibiotic. Research has shown the compound is active against many well-known, potentially dangerous pathogens including Mycobacterium tuberculosis and Staphylococcus aureus.

"Antibiotics are not only available on prescription. Our own bodies produce efficient substances to fend off bacteria, fungi and viruses," Dr. Ulrich Zachariae of the University of Edinburgh's School of Physics, who took part in the study, said in a press statement.

Finding a substance that is effective against superbug strains of Staphylococcus aureus, is especially important because these antibiotic-resistant staph infections are an increasing danger for hospital patients. Staphylococcus aureus infections can cause life-threatening diseases such as sepsis (blood infection) and pneumonia.