Game-changing innovations in heart, malaria and cancer care

Sounds of a sick heart

Cardiovascular disease moves in stealth. Years pass with no visible signs. Once chest pain, fatigue or other physical symptoms set in, the heart has already been overworked and damaged. Warning signs of an unhealthy heart, though, can lurk — not so quietly — in its many complex sounds. This invention “listens” for changes, providing a way to pinpoint markers of heart failure based on the frequency and durations of sounds in a cardiac cycle. Paired with an algorithm, it could open the door to more accessible, low-cost diagnostics for routine doctor’s visits or at-home style tests for earlier detection, diagnosis and better treatment outcomes.

The inventors of this patent are working with Dr. Tom Nguyen from Baptist Health’s Miami Cardiac & Vascular Institute to begin clinical studies related to this work.

Blocking the malaria parasite

Current antimalarials have a dilemma. They help kill the later stage malaria parasite but don’t completely prevent human-to-mosquito transmission, meaning a mosquito can bite a person still recovering, pick up the parasite, then infect other people days later. Arsinothricin (AST) can be a promising lead compound for new multi-stage antimalarial drugs to address this problem. In the lab, researchers showed AST targeted Plasmodium falciparum, the parasite responsible for most malaria deaths worldwide in human cells, blocking transmission and ending the malaria lifecycle — key to one day eradicating the deadly disease.

New directions for treating prostate cancer

Prostate cancer remains the second most frequently diagnosed cancer among men. No efficient therapy is available for the treatment of resistant prostate cancer. Using a novel drug screening procedure, researchers found new methods for treating and reducing the recurrence of prostate cancer. Compounds from already FDA-approved drugs, such as antifungal natamycin, were shown in the lab to stop cancer from repairing damage to its DNA — a process, in cancer, that helps bad cells thrive and multiply — without affecting normal cells. As a result, the rapid spread of cancer cells slowed.