UCC research may save hundreds of heart attack victims

HUNDREDS of heart attack victims’ lives could be saved and Irish health service costs could be cut by €50 million a year with a new treatment being developed at University College Cork.

The college’s Centre for Research in Vascular Biology hopes to begin clinical trials using the injection of a tiny dose of insulin-like growth factor into the heart to help prevent cardiac muscles from failing.

Up to 10 million patients worldwide each year suffer heart attacks so severe that they require emergency opening of the artery and insertion of a stent to keep it open. But 1 million will suffer heart failure in the following weeks, in some cases causing death.

While the outcomes to date are based on findings in an experimental model, the work was groundbreaking enough to earn Dr John O’Sullivan the Young Investigator Award at one of the world’s biggest gatherings of cardiology experts this week.

The doctor from Co Clare, who is completing a PhD in UCC under the supervision of senior researcher Professor Noel Caplice, presented the findings at the American College of Cardiology meeting in New Orleans.

Prof Caplice said the insulin-like substance is commonly used to promote growth in children of small stature.

“There has been previous work using insulin-like growth factor to help heart muscle recovery, but the high doses used led to raised blood pressure. Ours is the first treatment that would inject it immediately after a heart attack and the doses are in picograms, that’s just trillionths of a gram.”

The work to date involved collaboration with UCC’s biochemistry department headed by Prof Rosemary O’Connor, and was funded by Science Foundation Ireland.

It is hoped to start trials later this year. Funding of €1m over four years is available to the researchers for clinical trials, pending approval from the Irish Medicines Board.