Heart Overgrowth Blocker Found

Investigators at the University of Wuerzburg (Germany) and the Frankfurt branch of Sanofi-Aventis, a multinational pharmaceutical firm, have found that the protein NAB1 prevents the kind of damaging cardiac overgrowth, or hypertrophy, characterized by a dangerous thickening of the heart muscle, at least in mice.

Cardiac hypertrophy is a significant problem in some neuromuscular diseases, particularly Friedreich’s ataxia.

When Monica Buitrago and colleagues, who published their findings in the August issue of Nature Medicine, bred mice that produced extra NAB 1 (NGFIA binding protein 1), they found the mice showed significantly less hypertrophy in response to abnormal situations, such as pressure overload, while at the same time exhibiting normal heart growth during development and in response to exercise.

The paper’s authors say that NAB1 “represents an especially promising target to prevent maladaptive cardiac hypertrophy, as it leaves physiological growth unaffected.”