Fumes from vehicles to treat heart disease

London, August 2 (ANI): Scientists are using traces of exhaust fumes from vehicles as a new tool to treat heart disease.

They believe carbon monoxide and nitric oxide could save cardiac and stroke patients as tiny amounts of the toxins make arteries wider and stop blood from clotting.

A St Andrews university team is making molecules filled with hydrogen sulphide, nitric oxide and carbon monoxide.

Prof Ian Megson and his team at the University of Highlands and Islands in Inverness will then try to find a way of delivering them into pigs' hearts.

"We use amounts a million times smaller than in exhaust fumes," the Mirror quoted him as saying.

If everything goes well, these molecules could replace blood-thinning medicine.

"These things take time to get from bench to bedside but patients can look at this with some optimism," Prof Megson added. (ANI)