Researchers from Leicester University have produced an antibody which is capable of reducing the physical scarring of the heart and brain after an attack by more than 60%.
Heart attacks and strokes are caused when a blood clot prevents the flow of blood around the body, starving parts of the body of oxygen. However the majority of the permanent damage is caused around nine to twelve hours later. Once circulation is restored our body’s own defences attack the oxygen starved cells, which can cause inflammation and more than 80% of the permanent damage. It is from this damage after the attack which often leads to death or the reduction in life quality in survivors.
The new study gives hope and potential to reduce these effects and the researchers at the University of Leicester have come up with an injection which can prevent the body attacking the oxygen starved cells. If the cells are allowed to oxygenate normally, then the permanent damage can be greatly reduced.
According to the researches the new injection could have more of an effect than statins, the cholesterol lowering drugs which are currently taken by more than two million Britons.
Cardiovascular diseases such as heart disease and strokes kill around 200,000 Britons each year, of which most deaths are from heart attacks.
The first clinical trials will be conducted in the Leicester Biomedical Research Unit, at Glenfield Hospital, Leicester.
