Researchers at the Massachusetts General Hospital, U.S., have developed a nanoparticle that can diagnose heart damage due to chemotherapy treatment procedures. They discovered that the probe showed reduced side effects when intermittent fasting was done prior to the procedure. Chemotherapy is one of the popular treatment options for cancer patients. It involves using chemical-based drugs which can stop fast-growing cancer cells in the body. However, some of these drugs can damage the heart. Therefore, this new nano-sized probe can be used to identify the extent of damage to provide treatment to patients after successful human trials.
Image credits: Wikimedia
How does chemotherapy affect the heart?
How does intermittent fasting improve cardiac health?
How can this study help?
Image credits: Wikimedia
The researchers injected the nanoparticle into the mice with cancer to measure autophagy changes in cardiac cells under various conditions like intermittent fasting and chemotherapy. They discovered that the nanoparticles detected reduced autophagy in heart tissues exposed to doxorubicin, a chemotherapy drug that can damage heart cells. However, intermittent fasting before the drug intake reported normal autophagy activity in the mice’s heart cells.
“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,” said Dr David Sosnovik, the senior author of the study.
He suggested that further research is required to determine the fasting effects on autophagy in cancer patients. “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 added. “However, our paper provides important insights that may affect clinical care in the near future.”
The research was published in the journal Nature Biomedical Engineering.
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