American Heart Association supports research to improve cardiac outcomes for millions of patients

New research is bringing science one critical step closer to understanding what causes cardiac arrest and potentially preventing it.

The American Heart Association (AHA) has granted Case Western Reserve University the Rapid Impact Research Award, a designation reserved for research the AHA considers urgent, high-priority and capable of delivering critical results to patients quickly.

Cody Rutledge, principal investigator and assistant professor of medicine at Case Western Reserve's School of Medicine, uncovered something that had previously gone unrecognized-that after cardiac arrest, the heart's own repair system shuts down.

Specifically, he found that the mitochondrial ribosome-the molecular machine that builds the parts heart cells need to generate energy-stops working, leaving the heart unable to recover.

Every year, nearly 350,000 Americans suffer a cardiac arrest outside of a hospital, and only about one in 10 survive, according to the AHA. Patients who do survive face life-threatening heart damage and death in the hours and days following resuscitation.

Rutledge's research team will now pursue two critical goals:

• Confirm that suppressed mitochondrial protein production is a root cause of cardiac dysfunction after resuscitation.
• Determine whether providing the heart's cells with specific nutrients and compounds can restore mitochondrial protein production and improve survival outcomes.

Support from the American Heart Association will help us accelerate our research. Perhaps most exciting is that our findings extend well beyond cardiac arrest."

Cody Rutledge, principal investigator and assistant professor of medicine at Case Western Reserve's School of Medicine

The molecular mechanisms Rutledge's team are investigating-specifically the damage that occurs when blood-flow is cut off and then restored to an organ-are central to a wide range of devastating medical conditions, including heart attack and stroke during major surgery.

Any new treatment developed from Rutledge's research could benefit millions of patients beyond those who suffer cardiac arrest.