Multitarget Strategies to Reduce Myocardial Ischemia/Reperfusion Injury: JACC Review Topic of the Week

Many treatments have been identified that confer robust cardioprotection in experimental animal models of acute ischemia and reperfusion injury. However, translation of these cardioprotective therapies into the clinical setting of acute myocardial infarction (AMI) for patient benefit has been disappointing. One important reason might be that AMI is multifactorial, causing cardiomyocyte death via multiple mechanisms, as well as affecting other cell types, including platelets, fibroblasts, endothelial and smooth muscle cells, and immune cells. Many cardioprotective strategies act through common end-effectors and may be suboptimal in patients with comorbidities. In this regard, emerging data suggest that optimal cardioprotection may require the combination of additive or synergistic multitarget therapies. This review will present an overview of the state of cardioprotection today and provide a roadmap for how we might progress towards successful clinical use of cardioprotective therapies following AMI, focusing on the rational combination of judiciously selected, multitarget therapies. This paper emerged as part of the discussions of the European Union (EU)-CARDIOPROTECTION Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST) Action, CA16225.This paper is based upon work FROM COST ACTION EU-CARDIOPROTECTION CA16225 supported by COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology). Dr. Davidson was supported by the National Institute for Health Research University College London Hospitals Biomedical Research Centre. Dr. Ferdinandy has been supported by the the National Research, Development and Innovation Office of Hungary (NVKP_16-1-2016-0017; OTKA KH 125570; and OTKA 115378) and by the Higher Education Institutional Excellence Programme of the Ministry of Human Capacities in Hungary, within the framework of the Therapeutic Development thematic programme of the Semmelweis University. Dr. Bøtker was supported by The Danish Council for Strategic Research (11-108354), Novo Nordisk Foundation (Conditioning Based Intervention Strategies–ConBis), and Trygfonden. Dr. Heusch was supported by the German Research Foundation (SFB 1116, B 08). Dr. Ovize has been supported by the OPeRa (ANR-10-IBHU-0004 OPeRa) and the RHU MARVELOUS (ANR-16-RHUS-0009) programs. Dr. Schulz was funded by the German Research Foundation SFB/CRC 1213/B05. Dr. Hausenloy was supported by the British Heart Foundation (FS/10/039/28270), the National Institute for Health Research University College London Hospitals Biomedical Research Centre, Duke-National University Singapore Medical School, Singapore Ministry of Health’s National Medical Research Council under its Clinician Scientist-Senior Investigator scheme (NMRC/CSA-SI/0011/2017) and Collaborative Centre Grant scheme (NMRC/CGAug16C006), and the Singapore Ministry of Education Academic Research Fund Tier 2 (MOE2016-T2-2-021). Dr. Garcia-Dorado was supported by the Instituto de Salud Carlos III, CIBERCV-Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Spain (grant CB16/11/00479 to DGD, cofunded with European Regional Development Fund-FEDER contribution), and grants PIE/2013-00047 and PI 17/1397S