New Brunswick, NJ - According to Katie Eder, "Rutgers team behind new heart treatment. A new Rutgers study may lead to better treatment of systolic heart failure, one of the most common cardiac disorders in which the ability to pump blood becomes restricted and whose risks increase with age. Using a pharmaceutical treatment for systolic heart failure developed by Cytokinetics Inc. that is being tested in clinical trials, new research at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School determined the precise interaction between the drug and what researchers call the cardiac "motor."
The medicine forms a structure that regulates the contraction of cardiac muscle and allows the heart to efficiently pump oxygen-rich blood throughout the body, according to the study, published this month in Nature Communications.
The research team, led by Donald Winkelmann, used the drug omecamtiv mecarbil, or OM. The team determined how the drug binds to the cardiac motor so it can modify and improve the performance of the cardiac muscle, giving the heart the ability to pump a sufficient amount of blood throughout the body.
"The capacity of OM to 'fine tune' the heart's performance may be an indication of its ability to treat heart disease on a broader scale," Winkelmann said.
The research team, led by Donald Winkelmann, used the drug omecamtiv mecarbil, or OM. The team determined how the drug binds to the cardiac motor so it can modify and improve the performance of the cardiac muscle, giving the heart the ability to pump a sufficient amount of blood throughout the body.
"The capacity of OM to 'fine tune' the heart's performance may be an indication of its ability to treat heart disease on a broader scale," Winkelmann said.
