Science 321, 1493–1495 (2008)

A protein that reduces heart damage in rats could hold the key to protecting humans against a potentially life-threatening condition: reduction of blood flow to the heart, or cardiac ischaemia.

Daria Mochly-Rosen, of Stanford University in California, and her colleagues found that in rats, increased activity of a protein called aldehyde dehydrogenase 2 (ALDH2) is correlated with reduced damage following cardiac ischaemia. The researchers then isolated a compound called Alda-1 that activates ALDH2, also reducing heart damage by ischaemia.

Two-fifths of East Asians carry a mutation in the ALDH2 gene that leads to reduced ALDH2 activity. Alda-1 activated the mutant protein, and restored it to normal levels of activity.