Science
Funding for personalised stroke and heart disease treatments
Personalised treatments for strokes and heart disease are closer thanks to ongoing BHF research funding at the University of Reading.
The BHF has awarded Professor Jon Gibbins and his team at the Institute for Cardiovascular and Metabolic Research (ICMR) a further £1.4m in research funding. The money will help the team to continue their research into how individuals’ platelets, which are responsible for blood clotting, act differently.
The renewal of this long-running research project will enable the ICMR team to use new tests developed during previous funding rounds. Platelets are blood cells that perform a protective function, triggering blood clotting following injury, although diseased blood vessels also trigger their functions causing clot formation in the circulation (thrombosis) that can result in heart attacks and strokes.
Personalised treatment
Professor Jon Gibbins, the Head of the Institute for Cardiovascular and Metabolic Research at the University of Reading said: “Drugs that reduce platelet function are effective in preventing heart attacks and strokes, but do not work for everybody and are associated with side effects such as bleeding. A key problem is that most patients are treated similarly without understanding which will benefit most or which specific treatments should be used.
“We have developed new tests to study platelets, their responses to drugs and the processes that control these. Our results show that our tests may be used to determine who to treat and which medicines to use.
“This latest award from the British Heart Foundation will help us to learn how patients who have had thrombosis, or are at high risk of this, respond in our tests. We will find if this predicts which patients should take which medicines and by analysis of platelet proteins, determine why different peoples’ platelets respond differently. These studies will lead to personalised and more effective ways to prevent or treat heart attacks and strokes.”
Understanding blood clots
The new funding will enable the researchers to continue their work for another five years.
Professor Jeremy Pearson, Associate Medical Director at the British Heart Foundation, said: “Understanding how blood clots form and how they can be better prevented is one of the key questions in stopping heart attacks and strokes.
“This important research programme, led by Professor Gibbins, will help us find answers that can further improve the treatment of people with heart and circulatory disease.
“Funding this high-quality research is only possible thanks to the generosity of the public whose support has already helped saved countless lives.”