Scientists from University College London have reported a rare case of spontaneous recovery in three men suffering from cardiac amyloidosis, a disease in which heart failure develops due to the accumulation of toxic proteins in the heart tissues. Typically, half of patients with cardiac amyloidosis die within four years of diagnosis. Research published New England Journal of Medicine.
Transthyretin amyloidosis is a disease in which the toxic amyloid protein, transthyretin, accumulates in heart tissues. Until the new study, the disease was considered irreversible.
In the publication, scientists report on three men aged 68, 76 and 82 who were diagnosed with transthyretin cardiac amyloidosis but later recovered. Self-reports of improvement in symptoms were confirmed by magnetic resonance (CMR) scanning of the circulatory system, which showed the disappearance of amyloid protein deposits in the heart.
Researchers found antibodies targeting toxic proteins in patients. They were not found in the other 350 patients whose condition progressed as usual.
“Whether these antibodies cause patients to recover has not been conclusively proven. But our data suggest that this is very likely and that it is possible to reconstitute such antibodies in the laboratory and use them as therapy,” he said.
ancient scientists discoveredthat women with atrial fibrillation are three times more likely to develop dementia than healthy women.