Friday Sep 12, 2008 (foodconsumer.org) -- U.S. scientists have discovered a compound that may be used as a drug to treat heart attacks and protect the heart during open heart surgery and other conditions in which blood to the heart needs to be stopped.

The scientists from Stanford and Indiana universities schools of medicine found a compound called Alda-1 can activate an enzyme that is able to significantly reduce the amount of cell death caused by lack of blood flow to the heart.

The finding was published in the Sep 12 2008 issue of the journal Science.

The study conducted by Daria Mochly-Rosen, Ph.D., professor of chemical and systems biology at Stanford, found that administering Alda-1 reduced heart muscle damage in rats by activating an enzyme.

What led to the discovery are some mechanisms that are known to provide protection such as that induced by alcohol or ethanol against heart muscle cell damage. The enzyme involved in the protection is called aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH2).

"The idea was to find a small molecule that could bypass the signaling process and activate the enzyme directly," said Thomas D. Hurley, Ph.D., professor of biochemistry and molecular biology and director of the Center for Structural Biology at the IU School of Medicine. Hurley's research has included years of study of the ALDH2 enzyme.

Dr. Hurley said much research needs to be done in probably years to confirm the efficacy and safety of this compound for use in humans.   If confirmed, the compound could be most beneficial to 40 percent of people of East Asian descent who carry a variant of the ALDH2 enzyme, which predispose them for risk of cardiovascular damage.

Because ALDH2 is involved in the metabolism of alcohol, the new compound may help cure hangovers as well.  But that is not the purpose of the study.   The researchers said their finding explains why moderate drinkers tend to have less severe heart attacks than those who do not drink by preconditioning the heart to resist damage.