Coronary bypass surgery is a common heart operation that allows blood circulation to be restored to the heart by creating bypass branches around the narrowing / occlusion site.

This operation reduces the likelihood of myocardial infarction and significantly improves the quality of life of people with ischemic heart disease.

An international group of researchers from China and the United States proposed to use a special protein to restore blood flow, which stimulates the growth in the heart of their own collaterals - bypass branches of blood vessels.

Treatment with this protein in the future could replace planned coronary artery bypass grafting, leaving surgical intervention only for emergency cases.

To date, despite the rich arsenal of medicines, some patients with coronary artery disease need a planned coronary bypass. It would seem that the operation solves all problems.

But in fact, coronary bypass surgery, like any other operation, involves certain risks. In our case, this is postoperative infection, bleeding, stroke, heart attack, respiratory or renal insufficiency. Of course, the benefits of bypass surgery usually outweigh the risks, but it needs to be remembered.

The journal PLOS Biology reports that coronary bypass with all its risks and complications can be replaced with AGGF1 protein (Angiogenic Factor With G-Patch And FHA Domains 1).

The introduction of AGGF1 in rodent experiments facilitated the rapid formation of collateral vessels and the restoration of blood supply to the affected area of ??the myocardium. The vast majority of mice were able to achieve "satisfactory results that removed the question of surgical intervention".

AGGF1 triggers angiogenesis in the heart - the process of formation of new vessels. How the protein does this, scientists do not yet know. But the results of his action are amazing: therapeutic angiogenesis can make a real revolution in medicine, allowing to move away from the scalpel in favor of low-traumatic and safe conservative treatment of IHD, myocardial infarction and other ischemic diseases.

Dr. Qing Kenneth Wang of the Huazhong University of Science and the staff of the world-renowned Cleveland Clinic in Ohio, USA, for the first time in the world, used AGGF1 for angiogenesis.

Researchers note that autophagy is needed to trigger angiogenesis with AGGF1, which can be controlled with certain drugs or even genes.

Without going into details that are more interesting to biochemists, we turn to practical results.

The introduction of AGGF1 to laboratory mice with artificially induced myocardial infarction dramatically increases the 2- and 4-week survival of animals. Along with this, the structure and functions of the myocardium improved; the focus of necrosis in the heart muscle was limited, which later undergoes cicatricial changes.

medbe. en.

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