Garlic oil may help protect heart from damage

A component of garlic oil may be used to treat heart after attack, according to researchers at Emory University School of Medicine. Diallyl trisulfide, contain in garlic oil, may help release protective compounds to the heart after heart attack, during cardiac surgery, or as a treatment for heart failure. At low concentrations, hydrogen sulfide gas has been found to protect the heart from damage. However, this unstable and volatile compound has been difficult to deliver as therapy. Now, Emory researchers have turned to diallyl trisulfide as a way to deliver the benefits of hydrogen sulfide to the heart. Their findings suggest that doctors could use diallyl trisulfide in many of the situations where researchers have proposed using hydrogen sulfide. "We are now performing studies with orally active drugs that release hydrogen sulfide," said David Lefer, PhD, professor of surgery at Emory University School of Medicine and director of the Cardiothoracic Surgery Research Laboratory at Emory University Hospital, Midtown. "This could avoid the need to inject sulfide-delivery drugs outside of an emergency situation," he stated. Working with Lefer, postdoctoral fellow Benjamin Predmore blocked the coronary arteries of mice for 45 minutes, simulating a heart attack, and gave them diallyl sulfide just before blood flow was restored. The compound reduced the proportion of damaged heart tissue in the area at risk by 61 per cent, compared with untreated animals. A member of Lefer's team, postdoctoral fellow Kazuhisa Kondo, presented additional data on diallyl trisulfide in a mouse model of heart failure. Diallyl sulfide twice daily, given after aortic constriction, could reduce heart enlargement, Kondo found. The data has been presented at the American Heart Association (AHA) Scientific Sessions conference in Orlando.