Pioneering discovery leads to potential preventive treatment for sudden cardiac death

(University of Vermont) Roughly 15 years ago, a team of Vermont researchers discovered the precise malfunction of a specific protein in the heart that leads to hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, a common culprit in cases of sudden death in young athletes. A team of Harvard scientists and colleagues used some of these findings to develop a possible treatment to prevent this inherited disease that can cause the heart to thicken and stop pumping blood effectively, leading to heart failure.

Source: EurekAlert! - Biology - February 5, 2016 Category: Biology Source Type: news