Science<\/a>\u00a0shows that one dose was able to produce the heart\u2011helping hormone for several weeks.<\/p>\n\u201cThis is about helping the heart tap into its own healing mechanisms,\u201d says Ke Huang, assistant professor in the Texas A&M University\u2019s Irma Lerma Rangel College of Pharmacy and a coauthor of the study.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re trying to give patients a treatment that works with the body rather than against it. And the idea that a single shot might offer support for weeks is very exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n
A shot that heals the heart<\/p>\n
When someone has a heart attack, the heart becomes injured and strained. One of the body\u2019s natural responses is to release a hormone called ANP (atrial natriuretic peptide), which helps reduce stress on the heart and can limit long\u2011term damage. But the body produces only a small amount, not enough to make a major difference in recovery.<\/p>\n
The new injection gives the body temporary instructions, similar to the technology used in some modern vaccines, that tell muscle cells to produce extra ANP for a short period of time. The hormone then travels through the bloodstream to the heart, where it can help reduce stress and support repair.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s essentially a boost to the heart\u2019s own defense system,\u201d Huang says. \u201cThe body already uses ANP as a protective tool. We\u2019re just helping it produce enough to matter during a critical window of healing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Heart beat ecg or ekg seamless neon line on green background. Electrocardiogram graph of healsh cardio rate. Examination of human health. Medicine test cardiac rhythm and pulsating inteval.
This technology gives us a more efficient way to help the body make what it needs, when it needs it.<\/p>\n
How it works<\/p>\n
The injection uses a next\u2011generation technique called self\u2011amplifying RNA, or saRNA.<\/p>\n
The saRNA delivers temporary instructions to cells.
\nThose instructions allow the cells to make more copies of the instructions for a short time.
\nBecause the instructions can copy themselves briefly, the body gets a longer\u2011lasting benefit without the larger doses that traditional RNA treatments usually need.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis technology gives us a more efficient way to help the body make what it needs, when it needs it,\u201d Huang says. \u201cA single dose can create a sustained effect, and that\u2019s something we simply couldn\u2019t achieve with older approaches.\u201d<\/p>\n
A big step forward in heart attack recovery<\/p>\n
Even when patients survive the initial episode, the heart often weakens over time due to scarring and the loss of healthy tissue. No current therapy can fully prevent that long\u2011term decline.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur goal is to protect the heart right when it\u2019s most vulnerable,\u201d Huang says. \u201cIf we can ease that early stress and support repair, we may be able to change the trajectory of recovery for patients.\u201d<\/p>\n
By giving the heart weeks of extra support during its recovery window, the shot aims to reduce harmful scarring, preserve healthy heart muscle, improve how the heart pumps and reduce the risk of long\u2011term complications.<\/p>\n
This study builds on previous research, detailed last year, when Huang and collaborators published findings on a microneedle patch that is applied to the surface of the heart, releasing a hormone to promote healing. \u201cOur previous patch research identified the NPR1 signaling pathway as one of the primary drivers for the immunomodulatory benefits for heart repair,\u201d Huang explains.<\/p>\n
\u201cSince ANP is the natural ligand for the NPR1 receptor, this current study essentially builds on top by exploring how ANP-triggered activation leads to cardiac repair.\u201d<\/p>\n
Going from something that required opening the chest to something that can be delivered with a standard injection is a huge leap forward.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt brings this type of therapy into a space where it could truly be used in everyday clinical care,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
The team will continue to study safety, timing, and dosing before the therapy can enter human trials. Still, the simplicity of the injection makes its future potential especially promising.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s easy to imagine a treatment like this being given quickly and safely,\u201d Huang says.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat accessibility is what makes this work so compelling. If future studies continue to show strong results, this could become a meaningful new tool for heart attack care.\u201d<\/p>\n
Source: Texas A&M University<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Share this Article You are free to share this article under the Attribution 4.0 International license. Researchers have…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":332140,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[163,11162,45541,85,46],"class_list":["post-332139","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-health","tag-heart-attacks","tag-hearts","tag-il","tag-israel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332139","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=332139"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332139\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/332140"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=332139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=332139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=332139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}