Exhaust gas could aid heart patients

A project to turn a gas most commonly associated with car exhaust into a treatment for heart disease has won Heart Foundation cash for University of Otago researchers.

Dr Ivan Sammut, of the university's department of pharmacology and toxicology, is leading the research effort, which aims to win an international race to find a safe way of making therapeutic use of carbon monoxide.

The Heart Foundation has granted $118,632 to Dr Sammut and Dr Joanne Harrison over the next two years.

Dr Sammut said the potential was for carbon monoxide to be used both before surgery (in some cases to avoid the need to go under the knife) and to improve the outcome of surgery.

The ability of colourless, odourless carbon monoxide to dilate blood vessels was well established.

However, it also helped to prepare or condition cells to protect them against damage associated with angina or with any clinical intervention, he said.

Heart diseases such as angina caused considerable damage to the heart tissue because they reduced the amount of oxygen reaching the heart. The interruption to the oxygen supply triggered events that continued to cause damage long after the blood supply had been returned.

Dr Sammut said the trick was to find a safe way to deliver an effective dose of a CO-releasing drug, which would improve recovery of the damaged hearts.

The prize for the first team to crack the problem was a significant international market.

"We are working with Otago Innovation, a university-owned company, to deliver a result lucrative both for the university and for New Zealand," Dr Sammut said.

"There is quite a large number of pharmaceutical applications for this."

Dr Sammut was working closely with the university's chemistry department and hoped to have a compound ready for trials in two years.

"Although other competitors have patent applications in, few stand any chance of running long term," Dr Sammut said.

- NZPA