This cancer-fighting drug can help your heart heal itself

pulse

February 9, 2017 11:24 AM

The result? The mice’s ability to pump blood through their heart improved nearly twofold compared to mice that weren’t given the drug.

Finally, a happy side effect

Nearly every drug has a chance of side effects—that’s what gets rattled off fast during TV ads for prescription meds—but very rarely do one of those effects turn out to be super beneficial. (Unless you like dry mouth, that is.)

That may change with a new cancer-fighting drug in development out of the UT Southwestern Medical Center.

The medication targets your body’s Wnt signaling molecules, which frequently contribute to cancer development. But these molecules are also vital for tissue regeneration. So when scientists were testing the drug, they noticed an unexpected result: an increase in the number of heart cells that divided.

Once they saw that, they decided to test it further: The scientists induced heart attacks in mice, and then treated some of them with the cancer-fighting drug.

That means that the drug may help the heart regenerate itself. And that’s huge.

Currently, the heart is unable to completely repair itself after sustaining damage, such as from a heart attack. According to the American Heart Association, the damage can be so severe that the affected part of the heart muscle may be deemed “dead.”

That can lead to complications like abnormal heart rhythm, heart failure and valve problems. Plus, the weakened areas of heart muscle are more susceptible to rupture, causing a hole in part of the heart. When this occurs, it’s not just your heart muscle that dies—ruptures are often fatal.

With less dramatic injury, the heart can heal to some degree by forming scar tissue, but this also affects overall function. Having the ability to regenerate heart cells could be a major step forward in reducing the effects of heart disease and heart attacks.

Although the current research has a way to go before it’s ready for humans, researchers are hoping to get the drug into clinical testing within the next year.

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