- More than 64 million people globally have heart failure.
- Cognitive impairment is a common complication in people with heart failure.
- Researchers from Columbia University believe a small calcium leak inside the brain’s neurons is why heart failure may lead to cognitive decline.
- Scientists have also developed an experimental drug aimed at ‘plugging’ the calcium leak to help slow heart failure progression.
Over
People with heart failure are at a higher risk for certain complications, including shortness of breath, arrhythmia,
Additionally, cognitive impairment is a common complication in people with heart failure.
Now, researchers from Columbia University believe a small calcium leak inside the brain’s neurons may be why heart failure could lead to cognitive decline.
Additionally, scientists have developed an experimental drug to “plug” the calcium leak and potentially slow the progression of heart failure.
This study was recently published in the journal
According to Dr. Andrew R. Marks, chair of the Department of Physiology & Cellular Biophysics at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons and lead researcher of this study, the team decided to study a potential correlation between heart failure and cognitive decline based on what they already knew about the
“The RyR2 channel is present in both [the] heart and brain, so I reasoned that since the channel is leaky in the heart due to systemic stress of heart failure it might also be leaky in the brain,” he explained for Medical News Today.
RyR2 is an encoded protein found in cardiac muscle. As part of the intracellular calcium channel, it helps…
Read the full article here