A drug already used to treat arthritis has been found to help people better recover from heart attacks.
Researchers at the Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute in Melbourne found the anti-inflammatory drug abatacept could address the inflammation which damages muscle after a heart attack.
Immunologist and study author Dr Jonathan Noonan said even though most patients would survive their first heart attack thanks to current treatment approaches, many still sustained severe and irreversible heart damage.
Dr Noonan said this limited their quality of life and reduced their survival time.
“Around twenty-five per cent will die within three years with fourteen per cent dying within a year. After a heart attack, inflammation is a critical source of heart damage and heart failure.”
He said researchers have now discovered in preclinical mouse models that abatacept, commonly used to treat autoimmune disease, could address this long-standing problem.
“Abatacept prevents the activation of T cells, a powerful type of white blood cell that acts like a general with the ability to coordinate the entire immune system.
“T cells also develop a specialised ‘memory’ that allows them to very quickly kill infected, dying and alien cells.
“Normally, this enables them to provide long-lasting protection from infections and cancer.
“However, growing evidence shows that after a heart attack, T cells can go rogue and become major drivers of heart inflammation. This reduces the heart’s ability to pump blood around the body.”
Read the full study: CTLA-4-Ig therapy preserves cardiac function following myocardial infarction with reperfusion.
