This review highlights the critical role of disrupted cardiomyocyte Ca2+ homeostasis in heart failure and identifies key targets for future therapeutic interventions.
Improved treatments for heart failure patients will require the development of novel therapeutic strategies that target basal disease mechanisms. Disrupted cardiomyocyte Ca(2+) homeostasis is recognized as a major contributor to the heart failure phenotype, as it plays a key role in systolic and diastolic dysfunction, arrhythmogenesis, and hypertrophy and apoptosis signaling. In this review, we outline existing knowledge of the involvement of Ca(2+) homeostasis in these deficits, and identify four promising targets for therapeutic intervention: the sarcoplasmic reticulum Ca(2+) ATPase, the Na(+)-Ca(2+) exchanger, the ryanodine receptor, and t-tubule structure. We discuss experimental data indicating the applicability of these targets that has led to recent and ongoing clinical trials, and suggest future therapeutic approaches.
Røe et al. (Wed,) studied this question.