Heart Attack The devastating consequences of both heart attack and stroke may now be averted. An international team of scientists has now suggested that a simple injection can decrease the tissue and organ damage that follows the loss of blood supply in heart attacks and strokes. This treatment can seemingly enhance the outcome of transplant surgery as well.

Experts have now laid hands on the inflammatory response that follows the loss of blood supply to organs and tissue. This response appears as the key factor in determining the subsequent loss of tissue and organ functions. During the investigation, an enzyme called mannan-binding lectin-associated serine protease-2 (MASP-2) was found in blood. This enzyme seems to be the main component of the innate immune system known as the lectin pathway of complement activation.

It is assumed that the lectin pathway causes the potentially devastating inflammatory tissue response that can occur when any bodily tissue or organ is reconnected to blood supply after a temporary loss of the blood supply and oxygen that it carries. This excessive inflammatory response is presumably responsible for the damage caused by heart attacks and strokes, and limiting. It can purportedly improve outcomes and survival in patients.

Professor Wilhelm Schwaeble from the University of Leicester, lead researcher and colleagues were able to neutralize the response in mice through a single antibody injection. This injection supposedly interfered with the molecular process that paves way for tissue and organ destruction. As a result, significantly less damage and markedly improved outcomes were registered. The introduced therapy can apparently boost outcomes of transplant surgery and can be applicable to any surgical procedure where tissue viability is at risk because of temporary interruption of blood flow.

The research is published online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science USA.