What We Learn from the Insects

Call it serendipity. Call it a major collaborative effort. Call it a keen eye for science.

Whatever you call it, research that sprang from studies on insect pest control in the Bruce Hammock lab at the University of California, Davis, has resulted in a prototype drug that  reduces heart enlargement, one of the most common causes of heart failure.

We all know of people suffering from heart failure, which occurs when the heart can’t pump enough blood throughout the body. The condition affects 5 million people in the United States and contributes to 300,000 deaths each year.  The leading causes of heart failure are coronary artery disease, high blood pressure and diabetes. 
 

The research in the laboratories of cardiologist and cell biologist Nipavan Chiamvimonvat, Department of Cardiovascular Medicine, UC Davis School of Medicine,  and entomologist Bruce Hammock, Department of Entomology, showed that the new class of drugs reduces heart swelling in rat models with heart failure.  
 

 “This holds promise to treat heart failure and other cardiovascular as well as kidney problems,” said nephrology professor Robert Weiss, Department of Internal Medicine. 
 

Similar compounds are now in clinical trials.

"The study of rat models showed that heart failure is driven by high angiotensin associated with high blood pressure, artery disease and some kidney disease,” Hammock said.  “When that occurs, a key enzyme called soluble epoxide hydrolase is increased." 

The 11-member research team showed they could inhibit the enzyme with a drug made by Paul Jones, a former postgraduate researcher at UC Davis. The swelling and ultimate failure of the heart is blocked and reversed, Hammock said.

“Interestingly, the increase in heart size associated with extreme exercise does not increase levels of the epoxide hydrolase, and exercise induced heart enlargement fortunately is not blocked by the drug.” 

This research follows earlier studies reported from the Chiamvimonvat laboratory on cardiac hypertrophy.  The two UC Davis laboratories collaborated with the laboratories of John Shyy at UC Riverside and Yi Zhu, Cardiovascular Sciences, Peking University Health Science Center. 

The paper, “Soluble Epoxide Hydrolase Plays an Essential Role in Angiotensin II-Induced Cardiac Hypertrophy,” is online.

This is definitely a significant discovery that could result in saving scores of lives.  And to think it all started with the Hammock lab discovering an enzyme inhibitor that regulates insect larvae development.