Searching for causes and treatments of cardiac ATTR amyloidosis

Mechanisms of cardiac transthyretin amyloidosis

Dr J Paul Simons and his team at University College London are studying a condition called cardiac ATTR amyloidosis, where abnormal amounts of a material called amyloid builds up between the muscle cells of the heart. Too much amyloid build-up makes the walls of the heart thick and stiff, stopping it from working properly. Cardiac ATTR amyloidosis affects older people, and many more men than women. Most people with this disease never know they have it, but they can die from heart failure because amyloid progressively builds up more and more. Currently there are no treatments to prevent the disease from getting worse. To help us understand more about ATTR amyloidosis, Dr Simons has developed mice where most males (but few females) get the disease, mirroring what happens in people. In this project, they want to learn more about the disease in these mice, to find out how cardiac ATTR amyloidosis comes about, why it affects older male animals, and if there are better ways to diagnose and treat this disease. This research will help us to understand how and why ATTR amyloidosis develops and progresses, and help in the development of new treatments.