Vegas
08-05-2007, 06:25 PM
http://www.news.com.au/mercury/story/0,22884,22190312-921,00.html
AUSTRALIA'S top heart specialists believe they have found a treatment to stop heart disease in its tracks, potentially saving millions of lives worldwide.
Experts from the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute and Sydney's St Vincent's Hospital will today unveil the groundbreaking discovery which involves using adult stem cells from patients to repair their own hearts.
The world-first treatment has been shown to generate new blood vessels and repair dead tissue in the heart.
Importantly, the changes appear to be permanent.
Heart disease is the world's biggest killer, claiming 17 million lives a year.
In Australia, there are 3.5 million sufferers and 50,000 die annually, 35 per cent of all deaths.
The new treatment involves injecting patients with a hormone to release beneficial stem cells from their bone marrow into their bloodstream.
Then the patients are put on a treadmill to encourage the cells to travel to the heart, where they create new blood vessels to restore circulation and boost heart function.
Evidence has also shown the hormone -- Granulocyte Colony Stimulating Factor -- can also actively rescue and protect struggling heart muscles from dying.
It has passed safety tests and entered the second phase of human trials last week.
Professor David Ma, head of blood and stem-cell research at St Vincent's, said the development of the treatment was amazing.
"It's amazing because a few years back when we started this study our whole hypothesis was different," he said.
"It's quite exciting -- it's given us a new direction to attack the situation.
"Because of the study results and more evidence coming out in the past couple of years, we have changed our emphasis."
He explained how the hormone could stimulate blood vessels to grow in the heart as well as protecting and rescuing heart muscles from dying.
Prof Ma said the findings were significant because heart disease was already a huge problem in developed nations, like the US and Britain, but was also rapidly growing in developing countries, like India and China.
Professor Bob Graham, head of the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute, said the early findings were "very promising".
Speaking from the US, where he was meeting international specialists last week, Prof Graham said: "At the moment we are restricting it to the most severe patients but if it works and is safe for those patients, hopefully we can broaden it.
"The nice thing about this trial is that the drug is already on the market -- although it hasn't been used for this application."
The hormone is commonly used to help cancer patients recover after chemotherapy.
Dr Sharon Chih, cardiology research fellow at St Vincent's, is co-ordinating the trial.
Forty patients with severe angina -- or chest pain from a lack of blood and oxygen supply to the heart -- are being tested with the treatment against a placebo in a double-blind, crossover trial.
They will be treated for three weeks and checked with MRI scans to assess the treatment's effectiveness.
Poor diet and lack of exercise, as well as smoking, are major contributors to heart disease in Western countries. But the incidence is spreading to developing nations.
AUSTRALIA'S top heart specialists believe they have found a treatment to stop heart disease in its tracks, potentially saving millions of lives worldwide.
Experts from the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute and Sydney's St Vincent's Hospital will today unveil the groundbreaking discovery which involves using adult stem cells from patients to repair their own hearts.
The world-first treatment has been shown to generate new blood vessels and repair dead tissue in the heart.
Importantly, the changes appear to be permanent.
Heart disease is the world's biggest killer, claiming 17 million lives a year.
In Australia, there are 3.5 million sufferers and 50,000 die annually, 35 per cent of all deaths.
The new treatment involves injecting patients with a hormone to release beneficial stem cells from their bone marrow into their bloodstream.
Then the patients are put on a treadmill to encourage the cells to travel to the heart, where they create new blood vessels to restore circulation and boost heart function.
Evidence has also shown the hormone -- Granulocyte Colony Stimulating Factor -- can also actively rescue and protect struggling heart muscles from dying.
It has passed safety tests and entered the second phase of human trials last week.
Professor David Ma, head of blood and stem-cell research at St Vincent's, said the development of the treatment was amazing.
"It's amazing because a few years back when we started this study our whole hypothesis was different," he said.
"It's quite exciting -- it's given us a new direction to attack the situation.
"Because of the study results and more evidence coming out in the past couple of years, we have changed our emphasis."
He explained how the hormone could stimulate blood vessels to grow in the heart as well as protecting and rescuing heart muscles from dying.
Prof Ma said the findings were significant because heart disease was already a huge problem in developed nations, like the US and Britain, but was also rapidly growing in developing countries, like India and China.
Professor Bob Graham, head of the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute, said the early findings were "very promising".
Speaking from the US, where he was meeting international specialists last week, Prof Graham said: "At the moment we are restricting it to the most severe patients but if it works and is safe for those patients, hopefully we can broaden it.
"The nice thing about this trial is that the drug is already on the market -- although it hasn't been used for this application."
The hormone is commonly used to help cancer patients recover after chemotherapy.
Dr Sharon Chih, cardiology research fellow at St Vincent's, is co-ordinating the trial.
Forty patients with severe angina -- or chest pain from a lack of blood and oxygen supply to the heart -- are being tested with the treatment against a placebo in a double-blind, crossover trial.
They will be treated for three weeks and checked with MRI scans to assess the treatment's effectiveness.
Poor diet and lack of exercise, as well as smoking, are major contributors to heart disease in Western countries. But the incidence is spreading to developing nations.