This article is from page 2 of the 2011-06-28 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 2 JPG
A CLARE doctor has discovered a new form of gene therapy which could more than double the survival rate and life expectancy of people who suffer heart attacks.
Ennis man John O’Sullivan has completed a successful clinical trails on pigs and has just been granted a € 1 million budget to roll out clinical trials on humans over the next four years. Pigs were chosen as their hearts bear a close medical resemblance to humans.
Should the human prove as successful as the trials on pigs – his research will be used to manufacture a commercial drug which could save hundreds of thousands of lives every year.
The therapy works by using a substance secreted from adult bone marrow known as IGF1 to help strengthen the inner lining of arteries while also helping to prevent damaged heart cells from dying.
“We delivered a very exact, very low, level of IGF1 to the animal after the heart attack and we looked at how this effected cell death in the heart and heart structure. We found that even at very low doses this substance caused a significant change in the signals being sent off by dying hearts cells half an hour after the heart attack had taken place,” he told The Clare People .
“After 24 hours we noticed a significant reduction in the level of cell death in the heart. We looked again after two months and found a significantly improved heart function and structure.
“This is very encouraging and we have secured a grant to take this forward to human trials which will be starting in a months time.”
John is pioneered his groundbreaking work at the Centre for Research in Vascular Biology in Cork alongside Professor Noel Caplice. They have secured € 1 million to roll out human trial in Cork over the next four years.
“If this is successful this will change everything – it will be taken up everywhere and who knows what will happen,” continued John.
“In our trials, we created heart at- tacks which damaged on average 40 per cent of the heart and the use of the IGF1 reduced the death of cells in the affected areas by a half. On a longer term basis we were able to return heart function pretty much back to normal.”
John, who is from Castlewood Park in Ennis, earlier this year became the first Irish-based researcher to American College of Cardiology Young Investigator Award, while he also won this year’s Outstanding Young Person award by Junior Chamber International Ireland.