The National Heart Centre Singapore (NHCS) has teamed up with Paratus Sciences to enhance research on heart failure (HF). This partnership follows a pilot study that examined how bat hearts adapt to extreme stress.
Using Paratus’s “PREVENT-HF” research platform, the two organizations will study bat heart physiology to uncover factors that contribute to their ability to withstand stress. These findings will then be tested on human patient-specific heart cells from individuals with heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF). The effectiveness of these factors in preventing heart failure will be assessed using mouse models of HFpEF.
The initial pilot study involved researchers from NHCS and Duke-NUS Medical School. They evaluated the pumping strength of bat and mouse hearts under stress by administering dobutamine, a drug that stimulates heart function. The results showed that bat hearts had greater pumping strength compared to mouse hearts, indicating a more robust cardiovascular system.
This collaboration aims to leverage the unique physiological traits of bats to improve understanding and treatment of heart failure in humans.
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