The damage caused by a heart attack could be repaired by a new biodegradable gel, experts at the University of Manchester have discovered.
Backed by the British Heart Foundation, the team has created the substance, which can be injected directly into the beating heart.
The gel works as a scaffold for injected cells to grow new tissue.
In the past, when cells have been injected into the heart to reduce the risk of failure, only 1 per cent have stayed in place and survived.
The new gel is made of amino acids called peptides, which are the building blocks of proteins.
It behaves like a liquid when it is under stress as the peptides disassemble – which is an ideal state to inject it – and then the peptides reassemble, making it solid.
This holds the cells in place as they graft on to the heart.
For the results to be successful, a good blood supply is vital for the injected cells to be able to develop into a new tissue.
To prove that the technology could work, researchers showed that the gel can support growth of normal heart muscle tissue.
When they added into the gel human cells that had been reprogrammed to become heart muscle cells, they were able to grow them in a dish for three weeks and the cells started to spontaneously beat.
Researchers also tested the gel on healthy mice.
They injected a fluorescent tag with the gel into their hearts, and found that the gel stayed on the hearts for two weeks.
Echocardiograms, or heart ultrasounds, and electrocardiograms, which measure the organ's electrical activity, conducted on the mice confirmed the safety of the gel.
To gain more knowledge, researchers plan to test the gel after mice have a heart attack to see if they develop new muscle tissue.
The study has being presented at the British Cardiovascular Society Conference in Manchester.
“We’ve come so far in our ability to treat heart attacks and today more people than ever survive," said Prof James Leiper, associate medical director at the British Heart Foundation.
“However, this also means that more people are surviving with damaged hearts and are at risk of developing heart failure.
“This new injectable technology harnesses the natural properties of peptides to potentially solve one of the problems that has hindered this type of therapy for years.
“If the benefits are replicated in further research and then in patients, these gels could become a significant component of future treatments to repair the damage caused by heart attacks.”
The University of Manchester's Katharine King, who led the research, said the heart had a very limited ability to repair any damage it sustained.
“Our research has been looking for ways to overcome this so we can keep the heart in a healthier place for longer," Dr King said.
“While it’s still early days, the potential this new technology has in helping to repair failing hearts after a heart attack is huge.
“We’re confident that this gel will be an effective option for future cell-based therapies to help the damaged heart to regenerate.”
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
