• Heart failure due to cardiac fibrosis is a significant problem affecting millions of people worldwide and effective therapies are on their way to treating it.
  • Researchers at the University of Colorado School of Medicine have discovered a new mechanism for slowing cardiac fibrosis.

  • The study was published in the American Heart Association’s Circulation Research journal. It shows that the compound SW033291 can slow down fibrosis by inhibiting the 15-PGDH, i.e., the 15-hydroxyprostaglandin dehydrogenase enzyme.

  • This enzyme degrades eicosanoids, a lipid that acts as a signalling molecule to help prevent fibrosis.

  • Researchers looked for compounds to block the activation of fibroblasts, which drives fibrosis, by performing phenotypic high-throughput screening with a number of compounds.

  • In addition to this, the research team created a new biobank of failing human cardiac fibroblasts taken from patients receiving heart transplants. Compound SW033291 was found to be most remarkable, possessing the ability to reverse the activated state of failing human cardiac fibroblasts.

  • "This research has led to the identification of a new pathway that regulates cardiac fibrosis," says McKinsey, who is a professor of medicine in the Division of Cardiology.

  • The study of 15-PGDH in the heart will open up a whole new avenue of investigation and suggestions for treatment therapies for heart fibrosis, heart failures, and a plethora of cardiac diseases.

Source- News Medica