American scientists have found a protein that can dramatically accelerate the healing process of the heart muscle against a background of a heart attack. It is possible that it will become the basis for new drugs designed to accelerate the healing of various tissue damages.

It's about a protein called thymosin-beta-4. As studies have shown at the University of Texas on laboratory mice with artificially simulated myocardial infarctions (scientists simply bandaged one of the coronary arteries, depriving part of the heart muscle of blood flow), his injections several times accelerate the reparative processes.

Thus, one injection of a solution of this protein was sufficient to ensure that in a few weeks the experimental functions of the animals completely restored the functions and structure of the damaged cardiac muscle, which was practically impossible to achieve with the help of other medications.

Researchers believe that the mechanism of action of thymosin-beta-4 is the change in the energy metabolism of cells. Under the influence of this protein, the cells of the heart muscle begin to consume less oxygen than usually. This allows them to maintain their functions in the conditions of severe shortage of oxygen (i.e.

, in the infarction zone), and also "in advance" makes all the newly formed cells resistant to a low oxygen content in the tissue.

According to experts, thymosin-beta-4 is a promising drug for the treatment of coronary artery disease. Currently, preparations are under way for relevant clinical studies. It is also possible that it will find application in the treatment of other diseases accompanied by tissue damage - for example, stroke or skin wounds.

Medicus. En.

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