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Pharmacological Treatment for Heart Failure: A View From the Brain
Author(s) -
Felder RB,
Yu Y,
Zhang ZH,
Wei SG
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
clinical pharmacology and therapeutics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.941
H-Index - 188
eISSN - 1532-6535
pISSN - 0009-9236
DOI - 10.1038/clpt.2009.117
Subject(s) - heart failure , medicine , intensive care medicine , cardiology
Systolic heart failure is a feed‐forward phenomenon with devastating consequences. Impaired cardiac function is the initiating event, but central nervous system mechanisms activated by persistent altered neural and humoral signals from the periphery play an important sustaining role. Animals with experimentally induced heart failure have neurochemical abnormalities in the brain that, when manipulated, profoundly affect sympathetic drive, volume regulation, and cardiac remodeling—critical determinants of outcome. This brief review explores recent studies that provide a strong rationale for the development of pharmaceutical agents that target central nervous system abnormalities in heart failure. Clinical Pharmacology & Therapeutics (2009); 86 , 2, 216–220 doi: 10.1038/clpt.2009.117