Novel therapies in heart failure

Heart failure is a clinical condition that is characterized by the inability of the heart to meet the oxygen requirements of peripheral tissues and organs, despite normal filling pressures. Despite recent developments in the treatment of heart failure, the prognosis of heart failure patients remains unacceptably poor. This observation stimulates further research on novel targets, novel therapies and novel approaches to study treatment effects. For her thesis, drs. Liu investigated precision medicine in heart failure. Also, she investigated novel drugs for the treatment of patients with heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF), and heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF).In part I of her thesis, drs. Liu showed that a treatment effect may be heterogeneous across a patient population. In addition, she demonstrated that biomarkers may be useful tools to distinguish responders from non-responders to treatment. In part II of her thesis, Liu demonstrated that, in HFpEF, treatment with LCZ696 was associated with preservation of renal function, while an increase in albumin creatinine ratio was observed, compared with valsartan. Further, Liu showed that treatment with sildenafil was not beneficial in HFpEF patients with pulmonary hypertension. Finally, Liu provides 2 drug evaluations of Finerenone and Omecamtiv Mecarbil in part III of her thesis.Tailoring treatment will result in the greatest treatment benefit while reducing the risk of adverse effects. Liu therefore states that further research is needed to investigate a more personalized approach in order to match the right drug to the right patient