This new drug could keep hearts lacking oxygen

A new therapeutic oxygen release therapy restored the function of oxygen – depleted cardiac tissue in an animal model of global hypoxia in new studies conducted at San Francisco University. The study was published in the Journal of PLOS Biology. Body tissue that lacks oxygen is a major hazard, especially for the heart. Such hypoxic conditions can lead to long-term tissue damage or even heart attacks.

The new drug, called OMX-CV, does not appear to cause systemic side effects or overly corrected for excessive blood oxygenation, unlike its experimental predecessors, which may themselves be toxic. Instead, the new drug has provided its precious cargo of oxygen only to the tissues that need it most.

Emin Maltepe, co-senior author of the article, reportedly stated that any treatment with compromised blood flow, that it is a trauma, a stroke or heart disease, could potentially be targeted by such treatment.

Cardiovascular diseases such as coronary heart disease can starve the heart of oxygen, causing heart dysfunctions or heart attacks in adults, but heart hypoxia is also a problem in children. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), approximately 10,000 children are born each year with a serious congenital heart defect. During the first year of life, many of these infants have to undergo surgery in which blood can be temporarily removed from the heart, leaving the organ deprived of oxygen.

Under normal conditions, the heart consumes more oxygen by weight than any other organ and when the oxygen level is low. his demand goes up even higher. The hypoxic heart pumps harder to deliver oxygen to the rest of the body and, paradoxically, needs more and more oxygen itself to maintain its function. An oxygen-releasing drug, such as OMX-CV, could alleviate the physical stress associated with hypoxia and improve recovery as a result of a heart attack or operation to open heart in the adult and the child.

In addition, hemoglobin-based drugs have proven to be too effective: they tend to flood the blood with excess oxygen that can itself cause severe tissue damage. In addition, when it is outside of red blood cells, hemoglobin can attach to nitric oxide, a natural muscle relaxant found in blood vessels. Nitric oxide-depleted vessels contract, causing increased blood pressure, increased risk of heart attack, and decreased blood flow to important organs such as the kidneys.

OMX-CV avoids these problems by using a genetically modified bacterial protein called H-NOX as a base, rather than hemoglobin. The H-NOX proteins contain a "co-factor" called hemic group – the same co-factor that gives its name to hemoglobin – which allows the protein to bind not only to oxygen but also to nitric oxide. By altering the chemical structure of H-NOX proteins, Omniox scientists have reorganized them to make them more resistant to oxygen, while leaving nitric oxide alone. Researchers have also shown that modified proteins bind oxygen so tightly that they only let go when they encounter severely hypoxic tissue.

Posted on: October 20, 2018 at 20:05