UVA Health scientists seeking drugs that can trigger the regeneration of heart tissue after a heart attack say their efforts show promise and may lead to future treatment options. The team, led by researcher Jeff Saucerman, had previously developed a method to identify drugs that might make new cardiomyocytes, the responsible for pumping blood. In their recent follow-up work, the researchers analyzed five of the 30 compounds they initially identified to determine how the compounds regenerate cardiomyocytes, which could help replace damaged heart tissue.
The scientists say they gained new understanding of how the compounds work in heart cells, which will be invaluable in developing drugs to treat or reverse heart damage and . The potentially fatal condition affects more than 5 million Americans. "Once you lose cardiomyocytes after a and form a scar, there's usually no going back," said Saucerman, of the University of Virginia's Department of Biomedical Engineering, a joint program of the School of Medicine and School of Engineering and Applied Science.
"These compounds are promising in their potential of producing new cardiomyocytes to repopulate the heart." Irreversible heart damage? Heart failure occurs when the heart loses the ability to pump enough blood to meet the body's needs, leading to weakness, fatigue, shortness of breath, fluid buildup in the lungs and other symptoms that rob patients of their quality of life. It is irreversible and often fatal.
Heart failure can b.