RxPG News Feed for RxPG News

Medical Research Health Special Topics World
  Home
 
   Health
 Aging
 Asian Health
 Events
 Fitness
 Food & Nutrition
 Happiness
 Men's Health
 Mental Health
 Occupational Health
 Parenting
 Public Health
 Sleep Hygiene
 Women's Health
 
   Healthcare
 Africa
 Australia
 Canada Healthcare
 China Healthcare
 India Healthcare
 New Zealand
 South Africa
 UK
 USA
 World Healthcare
 
   Latest Research
 Aging
 Alternative Medicine
 Anaethesia
 Biochemistry
 Biotechnology
 Cancer
 Cardiology
  CAD
  CHF
  Clinical Trials
  Hypertension
  Myocardial Infarction
 Clinical Trials
 Cytology
 Dental
 Dermatology
 Embryology
 Endocrinology
 ENT
 Environment
 Epidemiology
 Gastroenterology
 Genetics
 Gynaecology
 Haematology
 Immunology
 Infectious Diseases
 Medicine
 Metabolism
 Microbiology
 Musculoskeletal
 Nephrology
 Neurosciences
 Obstetrics
 Ophthalmology
 Orthopedics
 Paediatrics
 Pathology
 Pharmacology
 Physiology
 Physiotherapy
 Psychiatry
 Radiology
 Rheumatology
 Sports Medicine
 Surgery
 Toxicology
 Urology
 
   Medical News
 Awards & Prizes
 Epidemics
 Launch
 Opinion
 Professionals
 
   Special Topics
 Ethics
 Euthanasia
 Evolution
 Feature
 Odd Medical News
 Climate

Last Updated: Oct 11, 2012 - 10:22:56 PM
CHF Channel

subscribe to CHF newsletter
Latest Research : Cardiology : CHF

   EMAIL   |   PRINT
New knowledge to shape new heart failure therapies

Jul 22, 2005 - 12:52:00 AM

"The heart has a huge need for energy. Everyone talks about the brain having a high energy demand, which it does, but the main energy user is the heart itself. Even though it pumps blood and oxygen around the rest of the body, the heart itself also consumes a huge amount of the oxygen that it takes in. And it's not unreasonable--it beats 24 hours a day," Lopaschuk said.

 
[RxPG] Researchers have determined how metabolic pathways differ between healthy and failing hearts. Normally, a heart derives its energy from a balance of fatty acids and carbohydrates, specifically glucose.

But Dr. Gary Lopaschuk, a pharmacologist and professor in the University of Alberta Department of Pediatrics, and his colleagues in the U.S. and Italy have found that during the early stages of heart failure, the heart uses too much fatty acid and not enough carbohydrate; and then, later on, the heart doesn't use enough fat.

Lopaschuk thinks that better treatments for heart failure patients may be available now that they have discovered that the type of "fuel" that the heart uses can contribute to the severity of heart failures. There are existing drugs that can make the heart more productive, but they don't remedy the fact that the heart is still inefficient because a lot of oxygen is necessary for it to drive the same amount of contractile activity.

"Many forms of heart diseases have many pharmacological therapeutic approaches to treat it. But heart failure is a difficult one. If you're diagnosed with heart failure, your five-year prognosis isn't that good. There's a high likelihood of mortality. So there's a major push to find new approaches to treat heart failure," Lopaschuk said.

"Heart failure is not a situation where the heart completely fails, it is a condition in which the heart fails to provide even itself with enough blood under certain conditions," Lopaschuk added.

Heart failure can be brought on by heart attack, congenital heart defects, viral infections, hypertension and more. Because of this, Lopaschuk, an expert in regulatory pathways involved in energy metabolism in the heart, worked with his colleagues to find out how metabolic pathways differ between healthy and failing hearts.

"The heart has a huge need for energy. Everyone talks about the brain having a high energy demand, which it does, but the main energy user is the heart itself. Even though it pumps blood and oxygen around the rest of the body, the heart itself also consumes a huge amount of the oxygen that it takes in. And it's not unreasonable--it beats 24 hours a day," Lopaschuk said.




Publication: This research is published in the July edition of Physiological Reviews.
On the web: http://www.ualberta.ca/ 

Advertise in this space for $10 per month. Contact us today.


Related CHF News
T-tubule disruption occurs before decline in heart function detectable
New technology to identify compounds that triggers heart failure
Arousal disorder in patients with cardiac failure?
Exercise improves life for heart failure patients
Gene therapy trial for advanced heart failure promising
Longer anthracycline therapy reduces heart failure in adult cancer patients
Seven-point system gauges seriousness of heart failure in elderly
Famotidine may help to slow progression of chronic heart failure
Ilk gene underlies heart failure
Nocturnal Hypertension Increase Congestive Heart Failure Risk

Subscribe to CHF Newsletter

Enter your email address:


 Feedback
For any corrections of factual information, to contact the editors or to send any medical news or health news press releases, use feedback form

Top of Page

 
Contact us

RxPG Online

Nerve

 

    Full Text RSS

© All rights reserved by RxPG Medical Solutions Private Limited (India)