Case Western Reserve’s chemical compound aimed at restoring spinal cord function may have an additional purpose: stopping potentially fatal arrhythmias after heart attack.Case Western Reserve neurosciences professor Jerry Silver, PhD, long has believed that lessons learned over decades from spinal cord research could someday apply to other areas of the body. He got the chance to test his theory when a colleague from another campus realized that his new compound – intracellular sigma peptide (ISP) – could address a critical cardiac issue.The results of the project, led by Oregon Health & Sciences University (OHSU) researcher Beth A. Habecker, PhD, exceeded even Silver’s greatest hopes: 100 percent success in animal models. Details can be found in Nature Communication.”Essentially, the OHSU group cured arrhythmia in the mouse using ISP,” Silver said. “They observed true regeneration right back into the scar within the infarct area. This is pretty exciting.”
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Robert Coronado, MD, FACC 