A drug, used to treat multiple sclerosis may be effective against cardiac hypertrophy, a disorder that often leads to heart failure, a new study claims.
Cardiac hypertrophy is a slow thickening of the heart muscle that shrinks the interior volume of the heart, forcing the organ to work harder to pump a diminishing volume of blood.
Cardiac hypertrophy, which afflicts one in 500 people, can be caused by high blood pressure or inherited through genes that control contraction of the heart.
University of Illinois professor and head of physiology and biophysics, R. John Solaro and his colleagues believe that if the thickening of the heart muscle could be slowed, or maybe even reversed, heart failure could be prevented.
Solaro and his UIC colleague Yunbo Ke, research assistant professor of physiology and biophysics, were interested in a chemical derived from a fungus used in traditional Chinese medicine as an eternal-youth nostrum.
That compound, designated FTY-720, has been developed into a drug to treat multiple sclerosis and is a chemical cousin to the drug most widely used to suppress the immune system and prevent organ rejection in transplant patients.
The substance, Solaro said, "mimics certain lipids in the body that play a role in the development of cardiac hypertrophy."
Using an experimental mouse model of cardiac hypertrophy, Solaro and his team found that FTY-720 significantly reduced heart mass; lessened fibrosis, or stiffening of the heart muscle; and improved overall cardiac function in the mice that received the drug.
The researchers also showed that the drug inhibits expression of several genes involved in cardiac hypertrophy.
The findings are published in the journal Circulation: Heart Failure.