Can a new drug combination protect the heart from injury?

Consecutive isoprenaline/adenosine to improve myocardial cardioplegic protection in a porcine model of ischemic heart failure with superimposed cardiac surgery

Open-heart surgery typically requires stopping the heart for one to two hours while blood is instead pumped around the body using a heart-lung machine. Despite many advances, stopping the heart can still lead to heart damage which can cause further problems after the surgery. Professor Ascione and his team at the University of Bristol previously found that two drugs, isoprenaline and adenosine, given one after the other, protected rat hearts from damage caused by a heart attack. In this project they hope to find out if this treatment could also protect the hearts of pigs, which are very similar to human hearts in size, anatomy and function. First, they will check the safety of the treatment and find the best dose to use. Next, they hope to investigate whether the drugs can protect against damage to the pig heart during open heart surgery following a heart attack. They will also explore the mechanisms underlying the drugs’ protective effect. If successful, the project will be an essential next step towards clinical trials to test whether the treatment could be used in patients to help limit damage to the heart during open-heart surgery or following a heart attack.