Emerging therapeutic targets in chronic heart failure: part II.

Chronic heart failure is characterised by functional deficiencies of the myocardium. Structural abnormalities of the left ventricular wall occur in many cases as a consequence of myocardial infarction (MI). The overburdened postMI heart is characterised by an active reorganisation of the remaining myocardium.

Emerging therapeutic targets in chronic heart failure: part I.

Chronic heart failure (CHF) is a life threatening disease with an enormous medical requirement. Approximately 15 million people worldwide suffer from CHF. The prevalence will inevitably increase due to the ageing population.

Validation of targets and drug candidates in an engineered three-dimensional cardiac tissue model.

High-throughput target discovery confronts the biopharmaceutical industry with a plethora of target candidates. The validation of these candidates in disease-specific animal models often lacks the required throughput. Here, we discuss perspectives and limitations of a novel engineered three-dimensional cardiac tissue, which enables the influence of gene and drug intervention to be monitored on a cellular and molecular level under physiological conditions in sufficient throughput.