Study of 48 PH-HFpEF Patients Flags RV Failure, GATD3 as Therapy Target
Updated
Updated · Tech Explorist · Aug 24
Study of 48 PH-HFpEF Patients Flags RV Failure, GATD3 as Therapy Target
1 articles · Updated · Tech Explorist · Aug 24
Summary
Right-ventricle dysfunction emerged as the strongest predictor of death and hospitalization in a 48-patient PH-HFpEF study published in Circulation: Heart Failure, outperforming conventional measures.
Heart tissue biopsies and long-read RNA sequencing linked worse cases to disrupted mitochondrial function, altered RNA metabolism and a standout gene variant, GATD3, tied to cellular energy production.
The findings help explain why drugs such as sildenafil and levosimendan have failed: PH-HFpEF physiology varies by patient, and boosting flow can worsen pressure and congestion in the lungs.
PH-HFpEF affects a large share of the roughly 3 million Americans with HFpEF—more than 80% develop pulmonary hypertension—and the combined condition carries annual mortality of about 15%.
Raza and colleagues say the work could support precision trials within a few years, using heart-tissue profiling to match patients with treatments aimed at the specific mechanism driving RV failure.