Grant: Project Grant

Every 7 minutes, an individual dies from a heart attack. In many instances, what happens is that the blood vessels bringing blood and nutrients to the heart are blocked. Blood flow should be restored very rapidly for the heart cells to survive and limit the dead zone. However, unexpectedly, when the flow is restored, it may also increase the damage to the heart. Another phenomenon takes place during restoration of blood flow. Indeed, the blood contains cells that are going into the heart to clear up debris of dead cells. This is important because we could enhance the properties of these cells to clear up debris and be beneficial for the heart. So in this proposal, we will investigate the potential of new drugs to prevent myocardial dysfunction when the heart lacks nutrients and oxygen, and at the same time help for healing. Our project is unique as we are the only group who have designed, characterized and patented these novel drugs. As of yet, an important number of therapeutic avenues have been explored but few led to positive results in the clinic. However, none of these drugs targeted both the heart and blood cells, thus clearing dead cells and debris of the injured heart. We believe that our work suggest a novel therapeutic avenues which may surpass what is available in terms of efficacy. Although the proposed studies are mainly focused on an understanding of drug action and to demonstrate their beneficial effect in animal models of the disease, the knowledge to be gained is mandatory to better position the drugs for their future development by pharma. Accordingly, we believe that this work may be the basis to new drugs available for heart disease.