IL4 may be key to MI recovery for some
Tuesday June 6th, 2017
Interleukin-4 may help the recovery of some patients after myocardial infarction, a conference will hear today.
The treatment could tackle the increased death rates faced by patients
with low blood levels of eosinophil, the conference of the British Cardiovascular
Society in Manchester, UK, will hear.
So far the treatment has been tested on genetically altered mice, researchers at Edinburgh University say.
This showed that it reversed harmful changes to the size, shape and function of the heart.
IL-4 is found within eosinophils and plays a key role in tissue repair, the researchers say.
Researcher Dr Iqbal Toor said: “Our work suggests that a simple blood test, which every patient with a heart attack already has, could be used to identify those patients who may have a deficit in their body's healing response to a heart attack.
“We found that IL-4 immunotherapy could be used as a novel treatment to boost the immune response in these heart attack patients in order to promote healing of the heart and so limit the damage that occurs after a heart attack.
“We will be looking to confirm these exciting findings in a clinical trial to find out whether tailoring immunotherapy to high-risk heart attack patients can save lives.”
British Heart Foundation director Professor Sir Nilesh Samani praised the research as "exciting."
He said: “If these results are borne out by future research and larger clinical trials, IL-4 may prove to be a key new treatment for people who’ve had a heart attack.”
* A second report to the conference today says that cardiovascular magnetic resonance imaging should be offered to young patients recovering from sudden cardiac arrest.
Researcher Dr Amrit Lota at the Royal Brompton Hospital, London, say it is twice as effective as echocardiogram in identifying the causes of the illness.
Tags: Heart Health | Pharmaceuticals | UK News
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