Congestive Heart Failure: Current Treatment and Therapies under Realm of Research

Abstract

The continuous increase in total congestive heart failure cases and the economic burden associated with it has led to the overwhelming demand for novel therapies. Quite a few drugs for heart failure have shown some promise in preclinical as well as early-phase clinical trials, but most of them were unsuccessful to show the real benefit in pivotal trials. Ivabradine and sacubitril/ valsartan are the new promising drugs to treat heart failure which has been approved recently by the United States Food and Drug Administration. Moreover, some of the newer agents under research offer the potential for noteworthy progress in addition to these drugs. Furthermore, Gene therapy and Stem cell therapy are the recent advances which are being explored and so far have proven to be useful as evidenced by clinical trials. Apart from synthetic molecules, there are also some natural agents such as L-arginine, Coenzyme Q10 etc. which aids in the management of congestive heart failure. In addition to the pharmacological treatment, non-pharmacological intervention also plays an essential role in management of congestive heart failure. To assess the true effectiveness of these attractive compounds future clinical trials with proper patient selection, optimal clinical endpoints and more appropriate study designs are mandatory.