Bethesda, MD (March 2015) –  A recent study published by Science Translational Medicine, has shown that researchers at the Center for Translational Medicine at Temple University’s School of Medicine (TUSM) in Philadelphia claim that the commonly-prescribed antidepressant paroxetine (Paxil) was shown to improve cardiac function in mice and even reversed signs of heart failure in cases. The effect of the antidepressant relevant to the cardiac function and reversal was the inhibition of a specific enzyme that is a side-effect of the drug. reversal occured at concentrations of the enzyme similar to those found in the blood of people treated with the drug.

The research team is headed by Dr. Walter Koch, PhD,  Director of the Center for Translational Medicine at TUSM. Dr. Koch had led two decades of study into an enzyme called GRK2, which stands for G protein-coupled receptor kinase-2. Dr. Koch cautions that while these positive results have been seen in mice, extensive further study will be required. He has hopes to begin clinical trials of a gene therapy approach to lowering GRK2 levels by next year.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,  5.1 million people in the United States have heart failure, and about half of the people who develop the disease will die from it within five years. Koch's discovery offers not only hope for prevention, but to undo actual damage. "We think we reset the system. We stopped the vicious cycle of heart failure and restored basic function," Dr. Koch states.

For more information in TUSM's press release, please visit here.