Regenerate damage heart tissues with a cancer drug

The human body is capable of so many wonderful things. The many biological and physiological processes that work together in harmony,  make our body work seamlessly and renew and repair itself.

Some parts of our body regenerate and renew constantly such the lining of our gut, blood cells, skin and liver. But our heart does not.

This means that when damage is caused to the heart by a heart attack, there is permanent scarring which makes our heart weak leading to heart failure.

Wnt molecules are crucial for tissue regeneration but can frequently cause cancer. For the production of Wnt proteins in humans, an enzyme called porcupine (Porcn) is essential.

Porcn enzyme, essential for regeneration molecules, is so named because fruit fly embryos lacking this gene resemble a porcupine.

The research team at UT Southwestern Medical Centre has worked for many years to develop a cancer combating drug which can target Wnt molecules. While testing the Porcn inhibitor which the researchers developed, they found many predictable adverse effects in bone and hair for example. But they were surprised to find the number of dividing cardiomyocytes (heart muscle cells) had slightly increased.

Based on these findings, researchers induced heart attacks in mice and then treated them with the Porcn inhibitor. The found that the heart’s ability to pump blood improved two fold in mice with Porcn inhibitor when compared to the untreated mice.

In addition to improved pumping ability, the researchers also found a reduction in fibrosis (scarring in the heart) which can cause the heart to inappropriately increase in size, leading to heart failure.

The researchers feel that even though fibrotic response can be immediately beneficial, it can hinder the regeneration of the heart over the long run. They believe that with this new discovery they can temper the fibrotic reaction and help with the healing of the heart.

Based on the findings, researchers say that the Porcn inhibitor will only need to be used for a short time thus avoiding the side effects cause by cancer drugs.

With this new discovery there is hope that the Porcn inhibitor is further tested as a regenerative agent for heart disease and that soon with the help of science heart tissues can be renewed back to health.

Source: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.