Treating heart attacks with a medium chain fatty acid

Date:
March 8, 2022
Source:
Michigan Medicine - University of Michigan
Summary:
Heart attacks mean energy deprivation. Could a fatty acid found in
energy drinks, then, help recovery? A preclinical study explores
this question.



FULL STORY ==========================================================================
A medium-chain fatty acid found in energy drinks might one day help
protect against heart attack injuries.


========================================================================== "Heart attacks are still a leading cause of death worldwide,
that often come with devastating complications," said Zhong Wang,
Ph.D., an associate professor of cardiac surgery at the University
of Michigan Frankel Cardiovascular Center, who is the senior author
on a recent preclinical study in eLife. "Better options are needed to
reduce injury to the heart after a heart attack, and even improve heart function. In this publication, we target the interplay between energy metabolism and epigenetics mediated by the medium chain fatty acid 8C."
Wang and colleagues were able to protect against heart attack injury in
rat models with octanoic acid, an eight carbon (8C) medium chain fatty
acid, as well as a few other metabolites. Those fatty acids produced acetyl-CoA, a building block for energy metabolism, which a stressed
heart desperately needs.

The idea is that a physician would administer this therapy to a person
once they arrive at the hospital after having a heart attack, to reduce
further injury and improve heart function during recovery, he says.

"Understanding the crosstalk between energy metabolism and epigenetics
may not only provide an effective target for myocardial infarction,
but also have broad implications in other ischemic injury-caused organ
damage beyond cardiac diseases," said Ienglam Lei, Ph.D., from the Frankel CVC's Department of Cardiac Surgery and the University of Macau in China,
who conducted the study's key experiments.

Wang says the next step would be to test this molecule in large animal
models, followed by clinical trials. The research team has been studying
the epigenetic regulation of heart attack for more than 10 years.


========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by
Michigan_Medicine_-_University_of_Michigan. Original written by Haley
Otman. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Wenbin Gao, Shuo Tian, Ienglam Lei, Liu Liu, Yijing Guo, Paul Tang,
Eugene Chen, Zhong Wang. Acetyl-CoA production by specific
metabolites promotes cardiac repair after myocardial infarction
via histone acetylation. eLife, 2021; 10 DOI: 10.7554/eLife.60311 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/03/220308141130.htm

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