Slows down the disease process of "sudden death"

Traditional medicine can slow the development of
heart disease.
According to the World Health Organization, millions of people around the world immediately became aware of the dangers
posed by cardiovascular disease.
Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause
of death in the Western world.
When young athletes develop heart failure, ARVC is often the culprit
.
Half of the cases of cardiac arrest in athletes during physical activity are thought to be caused
by ARVC.

Researchers at the University of Copenhagen have provided new insights into
the development of the disease in a recent study.
According to Professor Alicia Lundby, who led the new study, in fact, they also offer a viable treatment
.
"We have discovered a previously unknown disease mechanism in ARVC, which adds a whole new layer of information that no one knew about
before," she said.
A previously unknown mechanism is a defect
deep in the heart cells responsible for the contraction of the heart muscle.
This defect triggers a chain reaction that leads to cell death
.

Alicia Lundby, of the Department of Biomedical Sciences at the University of Copenhagen, said: "Based on the new insights we have gained, we have identified a molecule
that may be able to slow the progression of the disease.
"

Alicia Lundby and her colleagues studied heart biopsies
in healthy individuals and patients with hereditary ARVC.
They performed an in-depth molecular analysis of the heart samples and identified molecular differences
between the hearts.
Based on these measurements, they developed hypotheses about the cause of the disease and tested
them on mouse models and stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes.

The study was recently published in the journal Circulation
.

The researchers found that by activating a specific molecule, sirtuin-3, the development of
the disease could be slowed down.
So they started looking for molecules
that had this function.
They found and honokiol
.
Homagnolia is a natural product extracted from the bark and leaves of the tulip tree and is used as a painkiller in traditional medicine in some parts of Asia
.

"When we tested and paciminophenol on mouse models, it did slow down the development of the
disease.
The same thing happens in our stem cell-derived heart cells
.
We don't know if it does the same in humans, but we can confirm the effect in two different models, which makes it very interesting," says
Alicia Lundby.

"From very basic scientific measurements, through the interpretation of the results, to coming up with a possible strategy to slow disease progression and ultimately prove it works, it's
really satisfying.
" For me, that's really the essence of the type of research I'm excited about, which is to elucidate the mechanisms behind heart disease so we can come up with new therapeutic strategies," she said
.
"Doing the kind of research that we've done, analyzing thousands of proteins at once, is challenging when trying to understand what the changes we measure actually mean
.
This part of the work requires an in-depth study of the scientific literature
.
So you read, read, read
.
Talk to colleagues, think, read more
.
It's been months of investigative work
.
This can be both exciting and frustrating
at times.
Because of course not simple
.
”

The hard work didn't end there
.
The researchers have launched a follow-up study to examine their findings
more closely.
"We believe our findings are important and we want to determine if they can really help patients
.
" Our next step is to determine whether the mechanism we identified is present in all ARVC patients," said
Alicia Lundby.

Loss of Nuclear Envelope Integrity and Increased Oxidant Production Cause DNA Damage in Adult Hearts Deficient in PKP2: A Molecular Substrate of ARVC