Science | AAAS : reported that Light-activated bacteria protect rats from heart attacks

Light-activated bacteria protect rats from heart attacksWhen a heart attack strikes, blood stops flowing to parts of the heart, starving the tissue of oxygen and killing cardiac cells. Forty-five minutes after the heart attack, the hearts of the bacteria-laced rats pumped about 60% more blood than did rats that also had heart attacks but were not given the bacteria, and 30% more blood than rats that were infected with the bacteria but left in the dark. A new study with rats suggests an innovative way to do that: infecting the heart with photosynthesizing bacteria that naturally produce oxygen when exposed to light. The technique was effective at preserving cardiac function in the rodents, yet experts note there are significant obstacles to implementing it as a human therapy. They left the heart exposed to the laboratory's natural light and the bacteria went to work, resulting in a 25-fold increase in the tissue's oxygen levels 10 minutes after the heart attack.

New heart attack treatment uses photosynthetic bacteria to make oxygen

The bacteria increased oxygen in heart tissue to about three times the levels measured right after the heart attack, while saline-treated rats had almost no increase in oxygen. The results indicate that the bacteria need light to supply heart cells with enough oxygen to stave off damage. Without oxygen supplied by the blood, heart cells die. In a heart attack, clogged arteries or blood clots cut off blood flow to the organ. And that was in the dark: When researchers exposed the heart to light, rats that got the bacteria had 25 times higher oxygen levels than they did after the heart attack.

These light-eating bacteria could one day help us survive heart attacks

Often, heart attacks are caused by blockages in the blood vessels that supply oxygen-rich blood to the heart, which makes the heart muscle die. In today's study, published in Science Advances, rats undergoing heart attacks had the bacteria injected into their hearts. Heart attacks occur when oxygen is blocked from getting to crucial heart muscles — but that might be something that can be helped with bacteria. By using bacteria that "eat" light to produce oxygen, researchers were able to provide extra oxygen to rats having heart attacks. The brand-new technique has the potential to one day help humans survive when blood flow to the heart is interrupted.


collected by :Lucy William

To follow all the new news about Disease !!! All you need to know about all kinds of diseases