Heart failure

Molecules improve heart function after a heart attack

In Belgium, 46 people are diagnosed with chronic heart failure every day. Scientists are looking for new ways to treat the disease, which is sometimes called ‘cancer of the heart’. UAntwerp researchers have managed to identify promising molecules that improve heart function after a heart attack, amongst other things.

Chronic heart failure is a common disease in which the heart muscle is affected and the heart cannot pump enough blood. In Belgium, there are between 200,000 and 250,000 patients. Chronic heart failure can result from a heart attack, but also from high blood pressure, diabetes or chemotherapy treatment. Patients with heart failure suffer from fatigue and shortness of breath, and have a high risk of premature death.

In the past thirty years, various new medicines for heart failure have been developed, but the outlook for patients remains poor and patients with heart failure are frequently hospitalised. Therefore, there is a great need for new treatments for this disease.

Vincent Segers' team (left). ‘The molecules can inhibit scarring in the heart,’ said the scientist.

Scientists at the University of Antwerp have shown that a specific protein named ERBB4, present on almost all cell types in the heart, can be activated with chemical molecules. This multicellular impact of ERBB4 activation on the heart is unique because there is not a single medicine in existence that can trigger this. Until now, the only known activator of ERBB4 was a natural signalling protein called Neuregulin-1. Neuregulin-1 protects the heart against heart failure but is difficult to use as a therapy because it is not absorbed through the gastrointestinal system.

Inhibiting scar formation

Years of research by Antwerp researchers, in collaboration with colleagues from Ghent, Leuven and Leiden, have now led to a breakthrough. ‘We’ve managed to identify a number of molecules that bind to ERBB4 by screening over 10,000 molecules,’ explains Vincent Segers (Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences). ‘In mice, we’ve demonstrated that these molecules inhibit scar formation in the heart and improve heart function after a heart attack.’

The findings have been published in Nature Communications. The researchers now aim to further optimise these molecules and test them in larger animals with heart failure before developing them for use in humans.