Many suffer from angina pectoris, which is fatal in some cases, but those who survive it will suffer other complications, most notably the weakness and damage of the heart muscle, as this muscle is unable to renew its cells, which ultimately leads to the need for surgery.
The Egyptian scientist Hisham Ali Sadek is a professor of cardiology, molecular biology and biophysics at the University of Southwest Texas in the United States. He was able to discover the gene responsible for preventing the regeneration of cardiac muscle cells, which opens the way for the treatment of many heart diseases, for which he was awarded the “Distinguished Scientist” award from US National Health and Heart Foundation.
The Egyptian scientist explains to “Sky News Arabia” the nature of his discovery and its relationship to heart disease:
- When a baby is born, its heart cells in the early days are able to divide and renew themselves.
- Heart muscle can regenerate itself in mammals and humans, but it loses this ability days or weeks after birth.
- Heart cells stop renewing themselves because they need to enlarge the muscle to keep pace with the tasks they will perform and bear blood pressure.
- There is no medicine that restores the strength of the heart muscle after damage, and therefore when the heart muscle fails, the patient needs a heart muscle transplant, or the installation of an artificial heart.
- We discovered the Meis1 gene, which is secreted by the body after birth, and works to stop the regeneration of the heart muscle.
- We did experiments on mice by removing this gene and discovered that the heart muscle grows back.
- The reason for the secretion of the gene is that the heart muscle after birth is rehabilitated to bear the process of blood pressure and effort, and after the secretion of the gene, the muscle grows by increasing the size of the muscle cells, not by dividing the muscle.
- We discovered that removing this gene causes muscle cells to divide, thus renewing themselves and returning to their normal state, before the damage process occurs, and muscle strength and its ability to perform its tasks are not affected by the division process.
- We are now working on manufacturing drugs that block the action of this gene, which will benefit patients with coronary arteries, and those who suffer from angina pectoris and a number of other heart diseases.
It is noteworthy that Hisham Sadiq was born in England, but he returned to Egypt and studied there until he graduated in 1995 from Ain Shams University, then traveled to complete his studies in the United States, where he obtained a doctorate from Case Western University, in the specialty of internal medicine and cardiology, then became a professor in Cardiology at the University of Southwest Texas, and he received the Distinguished Scientist Award from the US National Heart and Health Foundation, with a value of $ 7.5 million. The Foundation is the largest federal entity that provides support through grants and awards for scientific research.
