Fixing failing hearts by repairing the connection between energy-generation and mechanical function.
The burden of heart failure in NSW
There are approximately 350,000 people living with heart failure in NSW, with an estimated annual cost of $1 billion to the state’s healthcare system. Outcomes for patients with heart failure remain poor – mirroring trends seen across the developing world - with a 5-year mortality rate of approximately 50%.
There are four issues:
1. Persistently poor outcomes for heart failure patients;
2. Complications from contemporary pharmacotherapies leading to serious adverse outcomes and precluding large subsets of heart failure patients;
3. A major need to address the lack of standardised diagnostic and management approaches for the subset of Heart Failure with preserved Ejection Fraction (HFpEF). This prevents the left side of the heart from fully filling with blood and is now the most common form of heart failure;
4. Lack of therapies for HFpEF.
The project will address the above issues by building on NSW-based unique resources, expertise, and innovation. Our NSW-based program with new commercial partnerships has the capacity to lead the world in heart failure innovation.
Restoring energy and function of failing hearts
This project aims to examine how restoring levels of specific molecules can improve energy output and mechanical function in failing hearts. Heart tissue samples from human failing hearts will be used to create beating tissue slices and cells. The team will examine how these tissues generate energy and how their mechanical function responds under different conditions. This project will also examine whether this approach is feasible in animal models of heart failure, and examine effects on the whole animal and other organs.