The ‘next frontier’ in science to stop deadly heart attacks will be the focus of the Baker Institute’s new , headed up by Dr Tin Kyaw.
This investment is part of an expansion to the Institute’s — led by Professor Andrew Murphy — exploring how the immune system responds to cardiovascular disease and can contribute to its progression.
Dr Kyaw has been a valuable member of the Baker Institute research team for almost 15 years, most recently working in the Vascular Biology and Atherosclerosis Laboratory. He is an honorary research fellow at Monash University and has a longstanding collaboration with the Centre for Inflammatory Disease at Monash Health.
Dr Kyaw received a PhD in Immunology, Physiology and Autoimmunity from the ³Ô¹ÏÍøÕ¾ University of Singapore, where he worked as a research fellow until relocating to Australia in 2007.
The focus of Dr Kyaw’s new lab will be investigating novel ways to prevent secondary heart attacks.
“Over the past 20 years we have made significant strides in acute medical care that mean far greater numbers of people are surviving a first heart attack, with new technology to repair the blocked artery that was the cause of the attack.
“But the downside is that the risk of another heart attack is significantly increased in these patients. Within five years, 30 to 40 per cent of them will have a recurrent fatal heart attack.
“Even with people taking medications to control their cholesterol levels and reduce dangerous plaque build-up in the arteries, we are still seeing this high level of recurrence.”
“It’s critical we find another way to intervene before it’s too late. This next frontier is targeting the immune cells that do the damage, for a more direct approach.”
Dr Kyaw is investigating how the adaptive immune system contributes to accelerated atherosclerosis after a heart attack by causing the body to effectively “attack itself” in a bid to dispose of the damaged cells.
This process can cause other plaques in arteries around the heart to become unstable, inflamed or rupture, causing another heart attack.
“We need to let the immune cells do the work to repair the damage from a heart attack, but we want to eliminate these harmful side effects, which can lead to further, often fatal, damage,” Dr Kyaw said.
Dr Kyaw’s lab will build understanding of how immune cells play a role in aggravating atherosclerosis (dangerous plaque build-up) to cause a heart attack, who is most at risk of developing a secondary heart attack due to this immune response, and better treatment options for these patients. His work will involve molecular biology, preclinical models and human samples.
“There has been a lot of progress in the treatment of immune disorders, and we hope that some of these therapies can be easily repurposed to target immune cells contributing to cardiovascular disease,” Dr Kyaw said.
“The recent attention and investment in mRNA vaccines also offer a potential pathway to address the immune response in cardiovascular disease.”
