Working to Ensure the Heart’s Ideal Performance

Newswise — New Brunswick, NJ – The human heart is to the body what an engine is to a car—the primary motor that keeps the human body functioning. When its ability to pump blood is restricted, its performance decreases and has a negative impact on other parts of the body. This condition is called systolic heart failure, one of the most common cardiac disorders with a significant risk that increases with age. Finding the correct treatment is key to ensuring the heart’s ideal performance and improving an individual’s overall health.

Utilizing a pharmaceutical treatment for systolic heart failure, developed by Cytokinetics, Inc., that is being tested in clinical trials, new research at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School determined the precise interaction between the drug and the cardiac myosin protein or the cardiac “motor,” forming a structure that regulates the contraction of cardiac muscle and allows the heart to efficiently pump oxygen-rich blood throughout the body. The study was published today in Nature Communications.

The research team, led by Donald Winkelmann, PhD, utilized Omecamtiv Mecarbil, or OM, a new drug treatment for systolic heart failure that they knew targeted the cardiac motor protein they had already been researching and that activates the contractions of the heart. The team determined how the drug binds to the cardiac motor so it can modify and improve the performance of the cardiac muscle, giving the heart the ability to pump a sufficient amount of blood throughout the body.

“Identifying the structure of the cardiac motor after OM binds to it is important to understanding the mechanism of the drug’s action in improving the performance of the heart’s pumping ability and accurately treating systolic heart failure,” said Winkelmann, who is a professor of pathology at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. “The capacity of OM to ‘fine tune’ the heart’s performance may be an indication of its ability to treat heart disease on a broader scale.”

Unlike other treatments designed to relieve the workload on the failing heart, according to Winkelmann, OM was selected for binding to the cardiac motor to restore function and limit the potential for harm to other organs in the body. Along with Winkelmann, the research was conducted by Eva Forgacs of the department of physiological sciences at Eastern Virginia Medical School, Norfolk. The research team at Rutgers included members of the Center for Advanced Biotechnology and Medicine: Ann M. Stock, PhD, professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at the medical school, and Matthew T. Miller, PhD, assistant research professor of chemistry and chemical biology.

The study was funded by grants from the American Heart Association and the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health. The research team has no financial or intellectual association with Cytokinetics, Inc.

About Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical SchoolAs one of the nation's leading comprehensive medical schools, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School is dedicated to the pursuit of excellence in education, research, health care delivery, and the promotion of community health. Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital, the medical school's principal affiliate, comprise one of the nation's premier academic medical centers. In addition, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School has 34 other hospital affiliates and ambulatory care sites throughout the region.

Part of Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School encompasses 20 basic science and clinical departments, hosts centers and institutes including The Cardiovascular Institute, the Child Health Institute of New Jersey, the Center for Advanced Biotechnology and Medicine, the Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute, and the Stem Cell Institute of New Jersey. The medical school maintains educational programs at the undergraduate, graduate and postgraduate levels on its campuses in New Brunswick and Piscataway and provides continuing education courses for health care professionals and community education programs. To learn more about Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, visit rwjms.rutgers.edu. Find us online at www.facebook.com/RWJMedicalSchool and www.twitter.com/RWJMS.

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