What is the issue for NSW?
Lipid lowering agents are the first line treatment option for people with heart disease. Although they reduce progression of heart disease and the likelihood of having a heart attack, they do not work in heart failure, a serious complication that can occur in heart attack survivors.
Given that coronary heart disease led to over 17,000 deaths in Australia in 2021, over 19,000 hospitalisations in NSW for heart failure in 2017-2018, and the magnitude of this problem is escalating, it is clear that new drugs that reduce heart disease and protect heart attack survivors from developing heart failure are needed urgently.
Equally important is that new therapies are free of the side effects that commonly result in discontinuation of lipid lowering therapy and can be translated rapidly into the clinic.
What does the research aim to do and how?
This project asks if a new dual-action drug called SSAOi/MPOi can prevent both inflammation and oxidation, stop heart disease from developing, reverse established heart disease and stop the tissue damage that occurs after a heart attack.
This research will monitor disease progression, reversal and stiffness in different parts of the artery wall in mice with heart disease following treatment with SSAOi/MPOi. Changes in gene expression in diseased arteries will also be monitored.
We will also evaluate heart function, tissue damage and whether SSAOi/MPOi treatment stops cell death in the heart after a heart attack.