The first sign of a heart attack is chest pain, if treated in the next six to ten hours with the method developed by Hector Cabrera it would reduce damage from three angles: lessening the inflammatory process, vascular activation and cell death in the heart.
The medical procedure by the microbiologist was implemented in Mauritius (East Africa) in chronic-degenerative patients with hypertension and diabetes who suffered a heart attack, with chest pain beforehand. This reduced by 17 percent the cell death rate compared to conventional treatment methods. In 2015 in Malaysia and South Korea a population study began to determine the number of deaths that can be reduced with the application of this new method.
Because of his scientific innovation, Cabrera has been recognized by the societies of cardiology in the United States and Russia, nominated by the British society and awarded by the German Society for Arteriosclerosis. In April of this year he will be distinguished by the International Society for Heart Research, in Argentina, with the 2016 ISHR-Servier award that recognizes the work of scientists under 35 years of age.
"My first doctoral work was to find bacteria that, by inducing them stress, could naturally produce ribonucleases, which are like scissors that cut the RNA of cells and proliferate in the presence of cancer, and they were targeted to certain types of this ailment, for example, lung cancer. It was my first publication in the scientific community," says Dr. Cabrera, 30 years old.
By studying RNA in cancer he realized that inflammation and cell death occurred; the next step was to recognize other conditions where cell damage was involved such as arteriosclerosis or a heart attack with cell death starting from lack of oxygen.
"Together with my team we saw that in that moment is when RNA is released and we applied different ribonucleases from bacteria and other active human cells. We found that this mechanism can be activated in various organs of the body by applying pressure through a sphygmomanometer; that is, we can induce the release of these active ribonuclease and decrease the magnitude of a heart attack by applying the instrument for five minutes at 200 millimeters of mercury, then letting the body relax and reapplying pressure, thus ribonucleases help reduce the damage by ischemia (lack of oxygen) and its consequences".
Cells are intelligent: when the thrombus forms (clot) there will be a percentage of them who dies immediately and others that will adapt to live without oxygen. During that period, of between 6-10 hours in the myocardial happens, the cardiologist opens traditionally applied enzymes into the circulation, thus achieving reopen the artery and the thrombus is destroyed, but the cells that have adapted They die by opening the flow."