LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Can the heart protect itself from heart-attack damage?

That’s the question being tackled in a University of Louisville research project led by cardiologist Roberto Bolli which has earned an $11.7 million grant from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, a subgroup of the National Institutes of Health. The grant is the largest nationally-competitive NIH award in U of L’s history.

Four teams directed by Bolli will study different genetic, molecular and biochemical processes in the heart in an effort to give high-risk patients lasting protection from heart attacks.

“Our goal is to make the heart permanently resistant to tissue damage,” he said.

Bolli, Jewish Hospital Heart and Lung Institute Distinguished Chair in Cardiology, will lead a team that will use gene therapy to build on the heart’s adaptive response to stress, a technique that could lead to sustained heart protection. A second team headed by biophysicist nother component to the research,Sumanth Prabhu ,will investigate whether genes may help shield the in heart function heart against damage.

A third team headed by cellular biologist Yu-Ting Xuan will try to identify molecular and genetic factors at work in a “signaling pathway” common to heart attacks, while a fourth team headed by environmental cardiologist Dr. Aruni Bhatnagar will examine the role of biochemical mechanisms in protecting the heart.

The project, which NIH called “exceedingly innovative and potentially high-impact,” is designed to move treatments from the lab to the patient as quickly as possible.

and how it can be prevented            Bolli and his colleagues will collaborate on some studies with their counterparts at isAlbert Einstein College of Medicine and New York Medical College in New York, Medical University of South Carolina, The Ohio State University and other institutions.

Bolli received the 2005 Howard Morgan Award for Distinguished Achievements in Cardiovascular Research from the International Academy of Cardiovascular Sciences. His endowed chair is supported through Kentucky’s Research Challenge Trust Fund. 

Heart disease is the leading cause of death and hospitalization in the United States and has a total annual cost of $142.1 billion, says the American Heart Association.

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