A compound the body makes after eating pomegranates, walnuts and certain berries improved heart function by as much as 80% in animal studies, according to new research from King's College London that points to a possible new treatment for a common and hard-to-treat form of heart failure.
The compound, urolithin A, is produced when gut bacteria break down naturally occurring plant chemicals called ellagitannins, found in those foods. In the study, funded by the British Heart Foundation, researchers tested urolithin A in animal models and in engineered human heart tissue grown from stem cells, then measured its effect on heart failure with preserved ejection fraction, or HFpEF, a form of the disease in which the heart muscle stiffens and struggles to relax between beats.
HFpEF accounts for roughly half of all heart failure cases and has few effective treatments, since it does not respond well to the drugs typically used for heart failure caused by a weakened pumping muscle. In the lab, urolithin A improved measures of heart relaxation, reduced the scarring known as fibrosis, and prevented the abnormal enlargement of heart muscle cells that drives the condition.
This raises the exciting possibility of developing new treatments that improve clinical outcomes and quality of life for people living with the condition.
Dr. Joseph Burgoyne, senior author, King's College London
One advantage for researchers: urolithin A has already been tested for safety in separate human trials studying its effects on muscle and cellular aging, which could shorten the path to testing it specifically in heart failure patients. The findings, published Oct. 4 and detailed by King's College London, identify both a new drug target and a naturally derived starting point for developing it.
Eating more pomegranates, walnuts and berries will not, on its own, replicate what happened in the lab — people vary widely in how efficiently their gut bacteria convert ellagitannins into urolithin A, and the study tested concentrated doses rather than ordinary food portions. Researchers say the next step is testing purified or supplemental forms of the compound directly in people with HFpEF, work that has not yet begun. For now, the results offer an early but concrete lead in a category of heart disease that has long lacked one.