A herb used in traditional Chinese medicine has benefits for heart attack patients, a top NHS professor believes.
Astragalus is a herb commonly used in Chinese medicine and now Professor Ioakim Spyridopoulos from Newcastle University and the Newcastle Hospitals NHS Trust has conducted research suggesting that a compound produced from the plant can improve how elderly heart attack patients recover. The product, purified to make the compound TA-65, was given to older patients for a year following a heart attack.
Prof Spyridopoulos and his team have found treatment with TA-65 reduces heart inflammation and improves the immunity of patients. The team has published a study in the journal GeroScience highlighting how this can lead to less complications for patients following their heart attacks - and less chest and join pain.
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Prof Ioakim Spyridopoulos, led the study and was working with the heart team at the James Cook University Hospital in Middlesbrough. Prof Spyridopoulos said: "It has become widely recognised that inflammation plays a key role in the formation, progression, and rupture of a coronary plaque, which induces heart attack, but, importantly, it is also a major risk factor for further complications.
"Reducing inflammation is, therefore, considered a key treatment target following a heart attack for patients and our study showed that TA-65 reduced inflammation by up to 62%."
He explained that this has a key benefit compared to using the anti-inflammatory drugs commonly required in heart attack cases as it did not suppress a patient's immune system of leave them vulnerable to infection.
He added: "In our study, the widely available drug TA-65 was shown to reduce inflammation but also appears to improve immunity by increasing a patient’s immune cells.
“If we can show that TA-65 improves the clinical outcomes of patients who have suffered a heart attack, on top of modern treatment options, it will become an important addition to patients’ medical care."
The research team are now hoping to carry out a further study to confirm the results. There is also the ambition to investigate whether use of TA-65 reduces "adverse cardiac events, such as more heart attacks or even death".
The study was carried out on 90 patients aged 65 and over. Patients had blood measurements taken at baseline, six months, and a year after their heart attacks and were reviewed regularly to check for side effects.
The study was funded by TA Science, which manufactures TA-65 - which is patented - but the firm had no role in the trial itself and the trial conformed to Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) guidelines.
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