Harnessing the immune system to protect against heart failure

Suppression of immune-mediated heart disease by IGF-1 - Targeting the adaptive immune system after myocardial infarct

After a heart attack, damage to the heart muscle can lead to heart failure. This is when the heart lacks the strength to pump blood around the body efficiently. Current treatments for heart failure are limited, and researchers around the world are working tirelessly to find ways to prevent this life-limiting degenerative condition. A team at Imperial College London believe that the immune system may hold the key. It’s known that our immune system is responsible for a range of things that happen in the heart after a heart attack – some protective, some damaging. We also know that people with autoimmune diseases, where your immune system attacks healthy cells in your body by mistake, have worse outcomes. In this project, Dr Susanne Sattler and her team will attempt to adjust the body’s immune response to heart attack in normal and autoimmune mice. They will use a molecule called IGF-1 to try and suppress the damaging immune actions while boosting those that promote heart repair. This work will give us a greater understanding of how the immune system contributes to the development of heart failure after a heart attack. Dr Sattler hopes that the results will pave the way for clinical trials of IGF-1, towards treatments that help to harness our immune system in the quest to prevent heart failure.