Kenneth S. Campbell, Ph.D., the director of translational research in the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine in the UK College of Medicine, helped map out an important part of the heart on a molecular level.
The heart is made up of billions of cells. Each cell contains thousands of smaller structures, called sarcomeres. These are the building blocks of muscle. Within each block, are hundreds of myosin filaments. To put this microscopic level into perspective, if the heart is a continent, Campbell and fellow researchers are looking at single strands of hair.
"Each filament has roughly 2,000 molecules arranged in a really complicated structure that scientists have been trying to understand for decades," said Campbell. "We knew quite a lot about the individual molecules, and people thought the myosins could be arranged in groups of six that were called crowns, but not much beyond that."
Campbell explained that the most interesting discovery in the paper is that there are three different types of crowns. "We think this means that heart muscle can be controlled more precisely than we had realized. We were also excited to see how myosin binding protein-C, another protein that is linked to genetic heart disease, sits within the structure. It gives us a new level of information about how the molecules are arranged in the heart," said Campbell.
This study is important for discovering new drug therapies for heart disease.
The heart is made up of billions of cells. Each cell contains thousands of smaller structures, called sarcomeres. These are the building blocks of muscle. Within each block, are hundreds of myosin filaments. To put this microscopic level into perspective, if the heart is a continent, Campbell and fellow researchers are looking at single strands of hair.
"Each filament has roughly 2,000 molecules arranged in a really complicated structure that scientists have been trying to understand for decades," said Campbell. "We knew quite a lot about the individual molecules, and people thought the myosins could be arranged in groups of six that were called crowns, but not much beyond that."
Campbell explained that the most interesting discovery in the paper is that there are three different types of crowns. "We think this means that heart muscle can be controlled more precisely than we had realized. We were also excited to see how myosin binding protein-C, another protein that is linked to genetic heart disease, sits within the structure. It gives us a new level of information about how the molecules are arranged in the heart," said Campbell.
This study is important for discovering new drug therapies for heart disease.
