Link found between Alzheimer'sand heart disease

Published on Sunday 15 November 2009 21:48

A LINK has been found between Alzheimer's disease and chronic heart failure.

Scientists believe both conditions involve a build-up of harmful protein in the body.

In heart disease, researchers have found that clusters of proteins called desmin amyloid are formed.

They are similar in structure to the plaques in the brain believed to play a key role in Alzheimer's.

Desmin is a protein that normally forms structural filaments in heart muscle cells, while amyloids are misshapen lumps of protein deposited in tissues.

Researchers made the discovery in dogs, but have also found the altered desmin in four human heart failure patients.

The new US findings were presented yesterday at a scientific meeting of the American Heart Association in Orlando, Florida.

The results are the first to suggest that toxic desmin amyloids can form in response to stress on the heart.

"Our study leads us to believe desmin plays a key role in heart failure," said lead researcher Dr Giulio Agnetti, a biochemist at Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions in Baltimore, Maryland.

"Now we have a chemical target to research further and help us investigate what could be the underlying biological cause of heart failure and, if it is like Alzheimer's, an amyloid-related disease."

The research raises the prospect of treating the root cause of heart failure by preventing the formation of desmin amyloids, said Dr Agnetti.

Currently it is only possible to treat the condition's symptoms, which include fatigue, breathlessness, and heart enlargement.

Dr Jennifer van Eyk, another member of the research team, said: "What is most interesting about our findings is that we have shown that these chemical changes and debris are related to impaired heart function, which, ultimately, might explain how and why the heart can fail."