When people suffer a heart attack or some other medical conditions, parts of that essential muscle are destroyed.
"One of the most basic truths about the heart is that it can’t regenerate after a heart attack," says Jeffrey Saucerman, a professor of Biomedical Engineering and Cardiovascular Medicine at UVA.
“But if we compare our hearts to newborn babies in humans or mice or fish and newts that can regenerate all of their life, we’re trying to understand what’s different about those cells. Is there a way that we can somehow unlock this potential to regenerate human heart cells?”
To do that, he and his research team treated heart cells in the lab with thousands of drugs already approved by the FDA for other conditions, then used artificial intelligence to analyze the results.
“We’re using AI in two places. One is to use robotic microscopes, and analyze these thousands of images, looking for an increase in the number of heart muscle cells over time," Saucerman explains. "The computer can count these cells – millions and millions of cells – much better than we can.”
Those that showed promise were then studied – again using AI – to look for patterns of progress. The group has now narrowed its search to five medications and hopes to begin testing in laboratory animals. It’s working with the drug company Astrazeneca, and Saucerman says the potential is great.
"It’s definitely a long shot, but it’s in a space that still interests those trying to develop drugs, because if it works – if we could regenerate new heart muscle, that could replace transplants and all of the existing heart drugs. It would be a very big deal."
But because they will need to do animal and human studies – looking for possible side effects – it could be years before this research leads to drugs that can restore the regenerative capacity of the human heart.
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.
