Scientists have zeroed in on a culprit that spurs damaging inflammation in the heart following a heart attack. The guilty party is a type of immune cell that tries to heal the injured heart but instead triggers inflammation that leads to even more damage.
Scientists have zeroed in on a culprit that spurs damaging inflammation in the heart following a heart attack. The guilty party is a type of immune cell that tries to heal the injured heart but instead triggers inflammation that leads to even more damage.
Further, the researchers have found that an already approved drug effectively tamps down such inflammation in mice, protecting the heart from the progressive damage that often occurs after a heart attack.
The study, from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, is published June 7 in JCI Insight.
Led by senior author Douglas L. Mann, MD, director of the university’s Cardiovascular Division and cardiologist-in-chief at Barnes-Jewish Hospital, the study showed that mice modeling human heart attacks lived longer if then given pirfenidone, a drug already approved to treat an unrelated lung condition. Further, the research showed that the drug works by regulating in the heart the specific response of B cell lymphocytes, the immune cells that the scientists discovered were responsible for the inflammation.
Read more at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis
Image: In this image of heart tissue, a single cardiac B cell lymphocyte is visible (blue surrounded by bright red). This type of immune cell triggers damaging inflammation after a heart attack, according to researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. Their study also shows that the drug pirfenidone reduces this inflammatory response to injury and protects the heart from progressive damage. CREDIT: LORA STALOCH
