Patients with are being given renewed hope of future treatments thanks to the work of a London research team and a grant from national charity Heart Research UK.
The research team at the National Heart and Lung Institute at Imperial College London, has been awarded a grant of £125,000 to look into new drug treatments to target cells that affect heart rhythm and help protect the heart against abnormal heart rhythm. In some patients abnormal heart rhythms can cause fainting, seizures, heart attacks and even sudden death and are believed to affect more than 700,000 people in England.
The two year project will study how myofibroblasts interact with heart muscle cells and how they affect normal contractions. It is expected that this project will help to show that myofibroblasts represent an important new target for anti-arrhythmia drugs. The findings will help explain how myofibroblasts affect heart rhythm, helping to pave the way for the development of new and better drugs to restore a normal heart rhythm. The work will also focus on whether the drug UCDA can protect the heart against abnormal heart rhythms.
