Plasmatic Levels of Epoxyeicosatrienoic and Dihydroxyeicosatrienoic Acids in Heart Failure

Heart failure (HF) is the leading cause of cardiovascular hospitalizations, and with its increasing prevalence, the healthcare systems face a heart failure pandemic. Translational research findings improve our knowledge of pathophysiology and uncover therapeutic targets in HF. Natriuretic peptides represent such examples as routinely used in diagnostics and therapeutics (neprilysin inhibitor). Despite modern pharmacotherapy, including angiotensin receptor-neprilysin inhibitor (ARNI) and sodium-glucose cotransporter-2 inhibitors (SGLT2i), the prognosis of patients, especially with advanced heart failure, remains poor. Furthermore, most medication is limited in the late stages of HF due to their hypotensive effects.

Basic research has been focused on the eicosanoids - metabolites of cytochrome P-450 (CYP)-dependent epoxygenase pathway of arachidonic acid (AA), especially epoxyeicosatrienoic acids (EETs). In the preclinical studies, it was shown that EETs importantly contribute to the regulation of cardiovascular and renal function and exert organ-protective actions. It was also proposed that intrarenal EETs operate as an endogenous compensatory system opposing increased renin-angiotensin system (RAS) activity. EETs are rapidly transformed by soluble epoxide hydrolase (sEH) to biologically inactive dihydroxyeicosatrienoic acids (DHETs). The role of eicosanoids in human HF, however, remains unclear.

Our translational project (Eicosanoids in Human Heart Failure) aims to evaluate the role of eicosanoids in human HF.