Scientists say they have helped characterize a link in events leading up to heart attacks. This portion of the chain of biochemical events that lead up to a heart attack was a previously unknown link.

Researchers at the University of Michigan say the new findings provide a target for future drug therapies.

Their work is being reported in Friday's edition of the journal Science.

In a statement Thursday, the scientists said this fills in a missing piece of the puzzle in the events leading to a heart attack.

"Scientists have known for some time that patients suffering from high blood pressure and other maladies release hormones, such as angiotensin, that can trigger an abnormal growth of cardiac cells that sometimes leads to heart disease."

The missing piece of the puzzle was in how signals were relayed from hormones to proteins in the cardiac cells, the scientists said.