Fasting prior to chemotherapy treatment has actually been revealed to assist heart cells keep typical autophagy activity in imaging tests utilizing nanoparticles.
Recently, a group headed by researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital developed a nanoparticle probe that can determine indications of chemotherapy-induced heart damage.
Chemotherapy for cancer clients can be a life-saving treatment, however a few of these medications can hurt the heart. A group led by researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) has actually established a nanoparticle probe that can determine an indication of chemotherapy-induced heart damage.
Experiments utilizing the probe likewise revealed that periodic fasting prior to treatment can stop the advancement of this heart damage indication in cancer-bearing mice, maintaining heart function and extending survival.
The research study, which was released in Nature Biomedical Engineering, concentrated on autophagy, a system through which cells get rid of extraneous or unhealthy parts. Reduced levels of autophagy have actually been connected to heart disease and other diseases, however autophagy can likewise be a significant motorist of cell death, developing a fragile balance in between its helpful and hazardous effects.
An autophagy-detecting nanoparticle was developed by David E. Sosnovik, MD, and his coworkers that allows scientists to non-invasively determine autophagy activity within the body utilizing either fluorescent or magnetic resonance imaging.Dr Sosnovik is the director of the Program in Cardiovascular Imaging at MGH’s Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging.
When the researchers intravenously injected the nanoparticles into mice with cancer, they might determine modifications in autophagy in heart tissue under various conditions, such as after chemotherapy. For example, the nanoparticles spotted lowered autophagy activity in heart cells exposed to the chemotherapy drug doxorubicin, which can trigger heart damage. However, treatment with statins or fasting prior to doxorubicin treatment permitted the animals’ heart cells to keep typical autophagy activity.
“We show with our nanoparticle that intermittent fasting—drinking water but no food for 24 hours before the chemotherapy is given—restores autophagy, eliminates the damage to the heart muscle, and even improves overall survival,” states Sosnovik, the senior author of the research study.
Sosnovik worries that complementary research study in human beings is required, particularly given that the impacts of fasting on autophagy in a growth are uncertain. “We are not suggesting that patients today fast before their chemotherapy. This is something that will need to be studied further in controlled and vigorous clinical trials,” he states. “However, our paper provides important insights that may affect clinical care in the near future.”
Also, the group’s autophagy-detecting nanoparticles might be utilized to get a much better understanding of the function of autophagy in a broad series of illness.
Reference: “A nanoparticle probe for the imaging of autophagic flux in live mice via magnetic resonance and near-infrared fluorescence” by Howard H. Chen, Zehedina Khatun, Lan Wei, Choukri Mekkaoui, Dakshesh Patel, Sally Ji Who Kim, Asma Boukhalfa, Efosa Enoma, Lin Meng, Yinching I. Chen, Leena Kaikkonen, Guoping Li, Diane E. Capen, Parul Sahu, Anand T. N. Kumar, Robert M. Blanton, Hushan Yuan, Saumya Das, Lee Josephson and David E. Sosnovik, 11 July 2022, Nature Biomedical Engineering.
DOI: 10.1038/ s41551-022-00904 -3
The research study was moneyed by the NIH/National Institutes of Health.
