Leveraging Single-Cell Technologies to Advance Understanding of Myocardial Disease

Advances in single-cell genomics and transcriptomics have transformed our understanding of human disease by uncovering previously masked cellular heterogeneity and therapeutic targets. Yet, adoption of these technologies in cardiovascular disease has lagged behind in large part due to technical and logistical challenges, but advances in tissue procurement and molecular approaches have brought the human heart firmly into the single-cell era. With an increasing number of studies addressing human myocardium, substantial insights have been elucidated into myocardial cellular composition and molecular heterogeneity in health and disease, and cell-specific contributions to cardiovascular disease. In this review, we provide an overview of the rapidly expanding body of single-cell and single-nuclear studies that interrogate the human myocardium, highlighting how these platforms are redefining our understanding of cardiovascular disease. Specifically, we provide a snapshot of major experimental and computational approaches within the single-cell space, prioritize the impact of these technologies in human cardiovascular disease, and describe a roadmap to how insights gained from these approaches may accelerate their translation from bench to bedside application.