A natural compound made after you eat pomegranates, walnuts, and berries might offer new hope for heart failure treatments. Scientists at King’s College London discovered that urolithin A can boost heart performance dramatically in laboratory models, giving researchers a promising new target to combat a difficult form of heart disease.
A Hidden Challenge in Heart Health
Heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) accounts for nearly half of all heart failure cases. In this condition, the heart pumps blood normally, but the muscle becomes stiff and struggles to relax between beats. As a result, the heart chambers cannot fill with enough blood, leaving patients exhausted and short of breath.
Doctors currently struggle to treat HFpEF because many factors cause it, including high blood pressure, aging, and diabetes. Existing medications often fail to work well, forcing clinicians to rely mostly on weight management and blood sugar control.
How Urolithin A Protects the Heart
The research team discovered that urolithin A activates a specific protein in the body called PKG1α. This protein plays a key role in helping blood vessels relax and keeping heart tissue flexible. When researchers tested urolithin A on animal models with HFpEF, they observed remarkable results:
- Improved Heart Function: Treated models showed up to an 80% improvement in heart performance compared to untreated ones.
- Better Muscle Relaxation: The compound made the heart tissue significantly more pliable, allowing it to fill with blood properly.
- Reduced Scarring: It decreased harmful tissue scarring (fibrosis) that makes heart walls rigid over time.
- Prevented Cell Enlargement: It stopped heart cells from swelling dangerously, protecting their normal function.
To see if these benefits apply to people, researchers also tested urolithin A on engineered human heart tissue. The compound improved tissue relaxation in these human cells as well.
What This Means for You
While these results sound exciting, experts stress that drinking pomegranate juice or taking supplements will not instantly cure heart failure. Gut bacteria vary from person to person, meaning everyone produces urolithin A differently. Furthermore, scientists must conduct human clinical trials to confirm the exact dosage and overall effectiveness.
However, because urolithin A already has a strong safety record in early human trials, researchers feel optimistic about turning this discovery into an effective medical therapy soon.
Source: www.medicalnewstoday.com
