A Silent Killer – By Dr Omoye Aretha Ukhun

Think about this, 1 in every 3 men and women in the whole world will eventually end up with a heart condition at some point in their lives, with about 30 percent mortality.

The WHO has documented that non communicable diseases, of which cardiovascular disease ranks highest, are a major cause of death in the world, the developing countries now inclusive as against the communicable(infectious) diseases prevalence of the past.

Heart failure is the inability of the heart muscle to pump sufficient blood to keep up with the body’s needs resulting in accumulation of fluid in the lungs and making it difficult to breath.

Agnes, a 29 year old happy and vibrant lady who had no prior history or symptom of heart disease, got pregnant for her spouse, a young dynamic science genius. Nine months later, they had a beautiful healthy baby girl with such sparkling brown eyes. The pregnancy and delivery were uneventful but 6 months after, she suddenly developed generalised body swelling and difficulty in breathing. She was rushed to the hospital but couldn’t make it through, despite all attempts at resuscitation.

One of the most terrifying truths about heart disease is its ability to hide silently for years without any symptom whatsoever, such that the first symptom for most people is catastrophic. For Agnes it could have been a case of perinatal cardiomyopathy, or any other heart condition, but it was insidious with no prior symptoms until the event.

Risk factors for heart disease include smoking, hypertension, diabetes, physical inactivity, unhealthy diet, polluted environment, positive family history, middle-advanced age, pregnancy.

Preventive cardiology is key.

Live proactively, exercise regularly, drink clean water graciously every day, eat lots of fruits and vegetables, keep from late night meals, hyper sugary and fatty diets. Avoid use of tobacco in any form or environments polluted with it, limit alcohol intake, check your blood pressure regularly, endeavour to visit your doctor if concerns arise, also for routine checks and prior to getting pregnant.

There are also appropriate medications for treatment of different forms of heart disease, namely angiotensin converting enzyme(ACE)-inhibitors, beta blockers, and diuretics taken as prescribed by your doctor. A heart transplant surgery may also be done when other treatments have failed.

Do what you can now to reduce the risks of heart disease, guard your ‘heart’ diligently, for veritably a silent killer —is its disease.

Stem Cell Derived Pacemaker Cells Could Help Weak Hearts Keep the Beat – By Richa Verma

Do you know how many times our heart beats in an average lifetime? It beats over 2.5 billion times. Do you know which part of the organ is responsible for the heartbeats in unison? It’s the sinoatrial node or SAN, which acts like the captain of the ship and dictates other parts of the heart to follow the rhythm. SAN is the natural pacemaker of the heart, which is built of a set of specialized heart muscle cells. It sends signals to the other parts of the organ to beat in a certain rate through an electrical signal.

A number of factors such as aging or inherited mutations often lead to disturb the natural pacemaker function of the SAN, which results in slower heart rate and poor blood circulation. The optimum treatment to address these problems is installing an artificial electronic pacemaker into the heart. However, artificial pacemakers have a few disadvantages as well. They are mentioned below:

· They are unable to react to hormone signals in the heart.

· The implantation may also carry a risk of infection.

· There is no way to adjust the pacemaker in order to match a child’s natural growing heart.

· The artificial pacemaker’s battery life is 7 years. So after its due course, another surgery is needed to replace it with a new one.

Considering all the drawbacks of an artificial pacemaker, a Canadian research team at the McEwen Centre for Regenerative Medicine in Toronto is trying the build a stem cell-derived pacemaker that would be an ideal alternative to the natural system. They are aiming at transforming the embryonic stem cells into pacemaker cells so that they can naturally receive and give electrical heart signals.

There have been many researches and studies around artificial pacemaker with stem cells. But this research is special because it focuses on creating SAN pacemaker cells from the stem cells whereas other studies involve creating various types of cardiomyocytes.

Earlier in 2015, another team created SAN-like pacemaker cells from stem cells but they permanently inserted the gene into the DNA of the cells, which may lead to tumor and thus is not suitable for clinical procedures. The McEwen Centre for Regenerative Medicine team has relied on a process that is gene insertion-free. Stephanie Protze, the first author in the report, said, “It’s tricky, you have to determine the right signaling molecules, at the right concentration, at the right time to stimulate the stem cells.”

The research shows that 90% of the SAN cells that are derived from stem cells have the natural pacemaker functionality. That means that these cells can function as a natural pacemaker. This is an interesting step towards treating people with heartbeat problems.

The team had implemented the method on a rat module and now they are eager to implement the new technique to create pacemaker cells from human stem cells. This may be a time-consuming process and may take a longer time to come down to any conclusion, but the approach will enable the team to study heartbeat disorders and thereby to come up with drugs that can improve the condition.