Aims and rationale: Despite the advancement in HF treatment, HF remains a growingly common and incurable heart disease, with 5-year death rate standing about 50%. HF can develop and deteriorate from multi-layer reasons, but not every reason has been understood to a level where drug treatment can be developed to target that reason. The goal of our project is to better understand how HF develops and deteriorates from the perspective of its relationship with metabolic diseases, such as high blood pressure, high glucose, high cholesterol, and obesity. Understanding the details of disease development will help people to find effective treatments.
Project duration: We plan to complete the project within 3 years. Depending on the promises of the study results, we may extend the scope and /or duration of the project.
Public health impact: The treatment options for many types of HF and its resulted lung disease are limited to date. Our study will help to find key factors and genes involved in HF development and deterioration. These factors and genes may have the potential to become the targets for drug treatment. Our work will also help people to understand how some drugs that are used for metabolic diseases might also protect the heart. The knowledge would promote the search for HF treatments from available drugs.
