A12 • The Daily Wildcat
Science • Wednesday, September 13 - Tuesday, September 19, 2017
UA researchers test solution to surgical memory loss A naturally occuring peptide has been found to completely reverse memory loss caused by heart failure in mice BY OWEN ZERAMBO @DailyWildcat
A research team with members from the University of Arizona and the National Institutes of Health are looking to remedy harmful side effects sometimes experienced by patients after heart bypass surgery. When the surgery is performed, the surgeon will often use a technique called cardiopulmonary bypass, which uses a pump to act like the patient’s heart and lungs for the duration of the operation. The pump will keep the patient’s blood oxygenated and circulating while also allowing the surgeon to operate on a non-beating heart. However, while the pump, often referred to as a heart-lung machine, has made cardiac surgery a much safer procedure, some patients have reported side effects of the surgery that even include memory loss. “Just running your blood through the tubing of the machine elicits an inflammatory response of the body,” said Dr. Nancy Sweitzer, director of the UA Sarver Heart Center and chief of the division of cardiology at UA College of Medicine – Tucson. “Your body knows that blood was just outside in some tube, and it doesn’t like that,” Sweitzer said. “So, there is an inflammatory response that typically lasts about 24-48 hours.” This inflammation affects the brain
as well as the rest of the body, and is believed to be the cause of memory loss in certain patients. But a procedure to prevent the associated memory loss may be on the horizon, thanks to UA research collaborators like Sweitzer, and Lee Ryan, UA professor and department head of psychology. Angiotensin 1-7 is a naturally occurring peptide in the human body that has been studied and used extensively for its anti-inflammatory properties, particularly in regards to combating cancer. However, until recently, the peptide has had very little research done on its affect on the brain. Dr. Meredith Hay, professor of physiology at the UA College of Medicine – Tucson and another primary collaborator on the UA research team, studied the anti-inflammatory properties of the ang 1-7 peptide in lab mice and found promising
results. After administering the peptide to mice with heart failure, the memory loss was completely reversed, according to Hay. While Hay said curing the problem in mice is a promising start, before the procedure can be used by the public, it must undergo further clinical trials to prove it’s safe for extensive use in humans. Phase two of the trials is already underway, which includes the first use of human subjects. So far, two patients have completed the study out of a total of 90 participants. Hay said the process will take about four years to complete. Participants will be given ang 1-7 or a placebo — administered as an injection — two hours before bypass surgery and will take the drug or placebo every day for 21 days after that. A placebo is a “fake” form of the treatment that does not contain ang 1-7 and does not have a medical effect but is
used as a control group for the trials. Assuming all goes well in phase two, Hay said the procedure must also pass the phase three trial, which includes a much larger sample size of participants, often hundreds or thousands. The second and third phases of clinical trials are generally used to determine how effective the drug or procedure is compared to placebos, according to Hay. If it is found to be effective, FDA approval can be requested to allow for public use. Despite the long and rigorous testing process, Sweitzer said she remains optimistic. “We felt that the drug has been used in enough humans that we weren’t so worried about the safety [of phase two trials],” Sweitzer said. Though it will be a few years before they learn if all their hard work will pay off, in the meantime, Sweitzer said medical researchers at the UA will continue to find ways to improve the well-being of patients around the world. “What I, and many of us on the medical campus, are trying to do is take the incredible scientific talent on our campus and start using the discoveries in people with health conditions,” Sweitzer said. “The translation of basic science and molecular science into human disease is hard and complicated, but I think we have a really unique environment on this campus to do that.”
TECH CORNER
The future of battery power: You OPINION
BY BRIAN WINKLER @Brianewinkler
M
any of us today are infatuated with our portable electronics. They add a convenience and accessibility to our life that didn’t exist just a few years ago. At least, while their batteries still have a charge.
Luckily for us, the oppression of the charging cable may soon be a thing of the past. Thanks to various research initiatives, alternate power sources are just around the corner, such as using your body as the charger. Ever since the invention of batteries, researchers and engineers have striven to improve the amount of time a battery can produce power before needing to be recharged or replaced. It appears that a battery can only be improved so much before it rises to a cost outside the pay-grade of the average consumer. For that reason, a new realm of research opened, one that
explores the various ways energy can be collected from the human body. One such technology is thermoelectric generators, which utilize the temperature difference between our skin and the air around us. This temperature difference creates a current in a circuit that can be used to power a wearable device or to use your body as a phone charger. Recent innovations have led to thermoelectric generators being lightweight and flexible, allowing them to be comfortably fixed to the skin with tape or glue.
FUTURE POWER, A13