Could Microparticle Therapy Change Treatment for Heart Attacks?

A new treatment for heart issues known as microparticle therapy could cut the risk of a heart attack in half. According to researchers from Northwestern University, they found that using the study significantly cut inflammatory damage. 

Studies show that much of the damage following a heart attack may be due to inflammatory cells that hit oxygen-starved tissue. Lead investigator and visiting scholar of microbiology-immunology at the University's Feinberg School of Medicine notes that the emergency intervention works through the introduction of a wave of biodegradable microparticles that bind to other particles.

"This is the first therapy that specifically targets a key driver of the damage that occurs after a heart attack," he said, via a press release. "There is no other therapy on the horizon that can do this. It has the potential to transform the way heart attacks and cardiovascular disease are treated."

The new therapy works by being administered within 24 hours of a myocardial infarction, which can help reduce the size of heart lesions by up to 50 percent.

The microparticles have already been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Health officials believe that this treatment could potentially be applied to other types of inflammatory diseases.

"The potential for treating many different diseases is tremendous," co-author Stephen Miller said, via Medical Daily. "In all these disease models, the microparticles stop the flood of inflammatory cells at the site of the tissue damage, so the damage is greatly limited and tissues can regenerate."

More information regarding the study can be found via the journal journal Science Translational Medicine.