Astrocyte protein will protect the heart
Scientists have found out how to restore the heart after a heart attack
Cardiology scientists have discovered a key protein that helps the heart regulate oxygen flow and blood flow, repairing damage. The results of the study are published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry (Mesencephalic astrocyte–derived neurotrophic factor is an ER-resident chaperone that protects against reducing stress in the heart).
With a heart attack, biochemical processes are triggered that lead to damage to the heart – there are losses in tissues and muscles, interruptions in blood flow and oxygen flow. Since the heart itself does not recover very well, cardiologists are looking for ways to help it and minimize damage.
American scientists from the University of California at San Diego, together with German colleagues, found that the MANF protein, the neurotrophic factor of mesencephalic astrocytes, plays a key role in the restoration of the heart and, accordingly, in improving the survival of patients. It is able to repair damaged and even reconstruct other lost proteins, acting as a protein regulator.
"The more damaged your heart is, the worse the prognosis in the long run, so this is what our study is focused on," Chris Glembotski, a molecular cardiologist and director of the Cardiology Institute in San Diego, said in a university press release. "We are studying how to make the heart more resistant to damage from a heart attack, which will improve the recovery of patients."
With the standard approach, many patients after a heart attack are injected with stents to open blocked arteries, which helps in the long term. But the influx of oxygen has drawbacks.
"The oxygen surge that occurs as soon as the stent is implanted "stuns" the heart cells, and some of them die, which increases irreparable damage. We found a protein that can minimize this stress," explains Glembocki.
Scientists have conducted experiments on genetically modified mice, causing them to have a heart attack and watching how they will recover with and without the MANF protein. It turned out that the animals felt much better in the presence of MANF.
"This was our first clue about the importance of the MANF protein for the heart," says the first author of the article, doctoral student Adrian Arrieta. "It has a protective effect, but we didn't know exactly how it works because it's structurally different from the proteins we studied earlier."
It turned out that MANF reduces the level of initial oxidative stress after a heart attack, accompanied by the destructive effect of an overabundance of oxygen.
The first time after a heart attack, doctors call it the "golden period", when an intervention aimed at reducing the severity and damage can significantly increase the chances of not only survival, but also the restoration of the functionality of the heart. The researchers suggest that their discovery will lead to the creation of a protein drug that will be promptly administered intravenously to victims of a heart attack.
"One of our most interesting discoveries is that we found that MANF is a chaperone protein that supports other proteins during stress," Arrieta emphasizes. "If we could give heart attack victims MANF, they would have less damage after a heart attack, and they would recover faster."
The researchers plan to study the effect of the MANF protein on pigs in the near future, whose heart is the size, as well as whose symptoms after a heart attack are very similar to human ones. In addition, one of the tasks, according to the authors, remains the search for the optimal way to deliver MANF to the heart.
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