Heart failure remains a major cause of morbidity and mortality in developed countries. There is still a strong need to devise new mechanism-based treatments for heart failure. Numerous studies have suggested the importance of the Ca2+-dependent protease calpain in cardiac physiology and pathology. However, no drugs are currently under development or testing in human patients to target calpain for heart failure treatment. Herein the data demonstrate that inhibition of calpain activity protects against deleterious ultrastructural remodeling and cardiac dysfunction in multiple rodent models of heart failure, providing compelling evidence that calpain inhibition is a promising therapeutic strategy for heart failure treatment.
Keywords: CAPN1-OE, calpain-1 overexpressing; E-C coupling, excitation-contraction coupling; EF, ejection fraction; IP, intraperitoneally; ISO, isoproterenol; JP2, junctophilin-2; JP2-OE, junctophilin-2 overexpressing; LV, left ventricle/ventricular; MI, myocardial infarction; RV, right ventricular; SR, sarcoplasmic reticulum; T-tubule, transverse tubule; T-tubules; TAB, transverse aortic banding; TTpower, strength of regularity of the T-tubule system; WT, wild-type; calcium; calpain; excitation-contraction coupling; heart failure.