A popular drug for depression and anxiety could, with appropriate modifications, prevent heart failure, according to a study by American scientists published in the journal Chemical Biology.
Researchers from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor (Michigan) have observed that paroxetine – an antidepressant from the group of the so-called Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs), including the famous Prozac.
In experiments on heart muscle cells, they showed that paroxetine inhibits a protein that increases its activity as symptoms of heart failure develop (such as weakening of the processes that regulate the heartbeat and contractility of the heart). It is a receptor kinase associated with type 2 G protein (GRK2).
In the laboratory, paroxetine improved the contractility of myocardial fibers, and in mice administered it, it increased contractions of the left ventricle without noticeably affecting the heart rate.
Fluoxetine, the active ingredient in Prozak, did not have a similar effect.
As co-author Kristoff Homan points out, his team made this discovery by accident. As part of the initial tests, scientists searched a library of approx. 2. chemicals for those that inhibit GRK2. Among them were many drugs approved for the treatment of various conditions by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Paroxetine has been used to treat depression for almost 30 years. However, the researchers believe that at the doses used in this indication, the drug probably does not inhibit GRK2 well enough to prevent heart failure.
The authors of the study estimate that if they managed to introduce such modifications in the structure of paroxetine that would make the drug more effective at blocking GRK2 and have a weaker antidepressant effect, in the next few years it would be possible to develop a new drug that would inhibit the development of heart failure.
We talk about heart failure when the heart muscle is so weakened that it cannot provide the vital organs of our body with the right amount of blood, and with it oxygen and nutrients.
Cardiologists estimate that this health problem has recently started to take on epidemic proportions. This is, first, an aging effect of the population, with an increase in the number of people with risk factors for heart failure. On the other hand, paradoxically, it is contributed to by more and more effective treatment of heart diseases, including heart attacks. Thanks to modern techniques of invasive cardiology, it is possible to save more and more people with severe heart attacks who would not have had a chance to survive in the past. Their hearts, however, are more weakened and more likely to fail.
Based on epidemiological data, it is estimated that around 15 million people in Europe suffer from heart failure; in Poland, this number is approx. 700 thousand.
The disease is accompanied by a high mortality, greater than in many malignant neoplasms, such as breast or prostate cancer. (PAP)
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