Health

One indication of future's heart disease is the rising level of enzymes that produce 'hypohalous' acid in the body of the patient...

IllustrationRecently, a study in Melbourne, Australia has discovered a new type of sugar that can prevent heart disease. Compounds of selenium and sugar have been claimed to be able to prevent hypohalous acid from damaging essential amino acids in human plasma, and stop the progression of the disease.

The study was conducted by Dr. Corin Storkey and Professor Carl Schiesser from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Free Radical Chemistry and Biotechnology at the University of Melbourne. They have also worked with Professor Michael Davies from the Heart Research Institute, Sydney.

The researchers' initial findings have been published in the journal of The Royal Society of Chemistry, Chemical Communications, while the compound has been filed on the international patent, with hopes for future clinical use, such as reported from Medicalxpress, on Tuesday (12/06/2011).

IllustrationProfessor Schiesser also said, "Our compound of seleno-sugar works with lifting the hypohalous acid, which is a group of highly reactive chemicals, and can damage tissues when produced in the wrong place, at the wrong time, or at excessive levels."

"One indication of future heart disease is the rising level of enzymes that produce hypohalous acid in the body of the patient," he added.

The research team has found that the seleno-sugar compound could prevent hypohalous acid from damaging the essential amino acids in human plasma. This is a key step in stopping the progression of the disease. Currently, they have been working to optimize their compounds for pharmaceutical's future.

"We hope that in the future, our new chemicals will secure everything that comes from the heart," said Dr Storkey. **MS (ms)