Shanmughapriya Santhanam, a Rowan University researcher, recently received a $1.9 million grant from the National Institute of Health to explore how magnesium could stop heart failure.
Santhanam, an associate professor of biomedical sciences, will lead a five-year study investigating how magnesium supports mitochondrial function in heart cells.
To explain, mitochondria, often called the “powerhouses” of the cell, produce the energy needed for nearly all cellular activities. When they malfunction, it can lead to serious health conditions, including heart disease.
The research focuses on two key proteins: Mrs2, which helps move magnesium into mitochondria, and MCU, which controls calcium entry. Too much calcium in mitochondria is linked to cell death and heart failure. Santhanam’s team will study how magnesium might prevent this overload by modulating MCU activity.
Santhanam explains how magnesium was used before in cardiac sequences.
“When people undergo cardiac surgeries, they sometimes give magnesium as a protective supplement—essentially, to make the mitochondria happy by giving magnesium so that the mitochondria control the calcium uptake and stop it from overloading and causing cell death,” she said.
“So, one thing we will be doing is trying to understand the mechanism by which magnesium is going to protect the cells.”
The project will use animal models to examine how changes in the Mrs2 protein affect magnesium transport and calcium regulation. The team also aims to identify a potential activator that enhances magnesium uptake—an advance that could lead to new therapies for a wide range of metabolic diseases, including diabetes, obesity, liver disease, and even Alzheimer’s.
With this new NIH grant, Santhanam and her team aim to uncover how a mineral such as magnesium could unlock incredible new treatments for some of the most challenging diseases of our time.
