Researches in Britain have made a drug that could potentially decrease the damage caused by a heart attack by blocking a specific protein.

During a heart attack, oxygen flow is restricted to the heart causing the cells to go into stress and eventually dying. According to The Mirror News, lead researcher on the case,  Professor Michael Schneider from Imperial College London, said: “developing a drug to reduce the impact of heart attacks would be a “revolution” in care.” They found that a specific protein called MAP4K is released during heart attacks.

The drug they made was first tested on mice and positive signs were shown. When the protein was blocked by the medicine it showed that 60% of the mice showed less damage to their heart muscle and this lead to further testing on human muscle cells. They were able to make a “heart attack in a dish” by harvesting stem cells and growing them into heart cells. When this was done this drug also appeared to have a positive effect. More research is still needed but they think that if this drug performs as well as the test indicate that they could be at a new forefront with heart disease.