Medical breakthrough raises hopes for heart attack patients

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Medical breakthrough raises hopes for heart attack patients

New technique repairs heart damage in pigs paving way for human treatment

Tom Bawden

14 hours
Thursday May 9th 2019

Thousands of lives a year could be saved in the UK after a ‘Holy Grail’ medical breakthrough raised hopes of an effective treatment for heart attack patients within five years.

Heart attacks inflict major damage on the cardiac muscle which cannot be repaired, leaving a permanent scar that often leads to heart failure and death.

Scientists have spent years testing out different ways to mend the damage through heart cell transplants, with little success.

Now, researchers have developed a new technique that shows huge promise in regenerating the crucial cardiac muscle cells that are destroyed during a heart attack – largely healing debilitating scars.

“We are really very excited. For the first time we have repaired heart damage in a large animal,” said lead researcher Professor Mauro Giacca, of King’s College London.
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Prof Giacca plans to refine the technique with further tests on pigs before conducting an indepth clinical trial in humans. He is confident that it will be effective in people, whose hearts are very similar to those of pigs.

All being well, a treatment could be introduced to the health service in five to ten years – where it has the potential to save thousands of lives a year in the UK, he said.
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