The heart is one of the few parts of the human body to have no capacity for regeneration, which means heart attack survivors often suffer from permanent, debilitating damage that can seriously impact their quality of life. However, recent breakthroughs made by scientists at King’s College London based on the cutting edge mRNA technology used for some Covid-19 vaccines offer new hope of a cure.
The scientists have discovered mRNA genetic codes that produce proteins which stimulate the creation of new heart cells. By themselves, our hearts cannot repair damage which means they suffer from permanent scarring when damaged by a heart attack. However, it is hoped that the research will lead to a treatment that will, in future, be injected into patients in the immediate aftermath of a heart attack, helping the organ regenerate in a way it cannot without assistance.
The treatment could also potentially stop a heart from dying, saving patients. Heart attacks are caused by a blockage of the blood supply to the heart and can lead to up to one billion heart cells dying. Until now there has been no way for the heart to regenerate new healthy blood cells which can lead to patients who survive the initial attack subsequently dying of heart failure.
The mRNA treatment, based on the same technology as the Pfizer and Moderna Covid-19 vaccine, has been shown to successfully regenerate new cells in damaged pig hearts and human trials are now expected to commence within two years. The research is being led by Professor Mauro Giacca or King’s College London who explains:
“We are all born with a set number of muscle cells in our heart and they are exactly the same ones we will die with. The heart has no capacity to repair itself after a heart attack. Our goal has been to find a treatment that can convince surviving cells to proliferate.”
“Regenerating a damaged human heart has been a dream until a few years ago, but can now become a reality.”
“We are using exactly the same technology as the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines to inject micro RNAs to the heart, reaching surviving heart cells and pushing their proliferation. The new cells would replace the dead ones and instead of forming a scar, the patient has new muscle tissue.”
The team being led by Professor Giacca, based at King’s College’s British Heart Foundation Centre for Research Excellence, is also working on a treatment to be administered during a heart attack to prevent cells from dying. He said:
“We have identified three proteins which stop heart cells from dying by encouraging them to repair themselves. The idea is to now produce these proteins so they can be injected immediately after a heart attack — in the back of an ambulance or when the patient reaches the hospital.”
If successful clinical trials eventually lead to the approval of the treatments, one would be administered at the earliest possible moment after the onset of a heart attack and the other in its aftermath. Professor Giacca believes successful clinical trials would transform heart attack treatment, breaking completely new ground. They would also be worth a huge amount of money and be expected to be the best selling treatments in the history of cardiology.
He compares the new discoveries of his team with breakthroughs that have recently taken place in cancer treatments:
“The treatment revolution that has occurred in cancer in recent years, where there is immunotherapy and targeted biological therapies, has not occurred for the heart. Treatment for heart attacks and heart failure remains very similar to 50 years ago and the main pillars of therapy are drugs that were developed in the 1970s such as beta-blockers and ACE inhibitors.”
The research has been funded by the British Heart Foundation and it is hoped another £3 million will be raised by the Foundation’s status as Charity of the Year for the 2022 TCS London Marathon.