Liposomal Erythropoietin Protects the Heart

Reducing infarct size to prevent ischemic heart failure in patients with acute myocardial infarction is a known challenge for clinical cardiologists, and few drugs meet this challenge. In our new podcast Associate Editor Masafumi Kitakaze interviews lead author Shinya Minatoguchi (Gifu University Graduate School of Medicine, Gifu, Japan) and expert Tetsuji Miura (Sapporo Medical University School of Medicine, Sapporo, Japan) about the innovative new work by Yamada et al which used liposomal erythropoietin therapy to reduce infarct size in a rabbit heart model. Can this relatively non-invasive drug delivery method become an effective way to reduce infarct size in acute MI human patients? Listen now.

Yoshihisa Yamada, Hiroyuki Kobayashi, Masamitsu Iwasa, Shohei Sumi, Hiroaki Ushikoshi, Takuma Aoyama,
Kazuhiko Nishigaki, Genzou Takemura, Takako Fujiwara, Hisayoshi Fujiwara, Makoto Kiso, and Shinya Minatoguchi Postinfarct active cardiac-targeted delivery of erythropoietin by liposomes with sialyl Lewis X repairs infarcted myocardium in rabbits Am J Physiol Heart Circ Physiol, published online February 15, 2013, doi: 10.1152/ajpheart.00707.2012.