Researchers at the Indiana University and Stanford University schools of medicine have discovered a compound called Alda-1 which could play a key role in reducing muscle damage caused by heart attacks. This compound bypasses the body’s signaling system and binds to a mutated form of an enzyme known as mitochondrial aldehyde dehydrogenase 2( ALDH2) thus activating it and restoring its function.ALDH2 has vital role in metabolizing alcohol and other toxins, including those created by a lack of oxygen in the wake of a heart attack. It also is involved in the metabolism of nitroglycerin, which is used to prevent chest pain (angina) caused by restricted blood flow and oxygen to the heart. However it is discovered that some people, including about 40% of people of East Asian descent possess mutated form of the enzyme that hampers its function and puts them under increased risk of cardiovascular diseases. The researchers have identified that mutations in the gene that code for ALDH2 can cause structural changes in the protein thus impairing its function.Alda-1 is able to bind directly to this mutated enzyme at specific site and give it its normal structural integrity thereby enabling it to carry out its function in reducing damage to heart muscle tissues.
The study was conducted by Thomas Hurley, Ph.D., associate chair and professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at IU, and Daria Mochly-Rosen, Ph.D., professor of chemical and systems biology at Stanford .The findings of this study which has been published online in the journal Nature Structural Biology, can be quiet beneficial. It could help drug designers to develop analogs of the compound Alda-1. Such drugs would work by restoring the activity of mutated enzyme .The new class of drugs could help provide better treatment for heart attacks and protect the heart in cases of open heart surgery, organ transplants, stroke and other situations in which blood flow is interrupted.
