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Angina drug reduces carbon monoxide exposure
Last reviewed: 01.07.2025
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Even low levels of carbon monoxide can be deadly by disrupting the heart rhythm, say scientists in Leeds, UK. But a drug used to treat angina could help reverse the harmful effects, researchers say.
In large quantities, carbon monoxide is deadly because it sucks oxygen out of blood cells, causing a lack of oxygen throughout the body and threatening suffocation. Research has shown that carbon monoxide keeps sodium channels, which are linked to heart rhythm, slightly open. Prolonged exposure to carbon monoxide significantly disrupts the sodium channels, causing arrhythmia, which can be fatal.
Those who are most at risk to their hearts are residents of megacities with a large number of cars and a developed industrial complex, as well as smokers (including passive ones).
Symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning: headache, shortness of breath, nausea, dizziness, loss of consciousness, vomiting, fatigue.
British researchers, together with scientists from France, tested a well-known drug for treating angina, which affects the functioning of sodium channels, on laboratory rats. The rats were first poisoned with high concentrations of carbon monoxide, causing heart rhythm disturbances, which were reversed thanks to this drug.
However, scientists will need to conduct many more clinical trials to talk about new areas of application for the drug.