Myocardial pharmacoregeneration

Abstract

Novel pharmacological approaches addressing the underlying cause of heart failure progression, namely cardiomyocyte loss, are emerging. The main therapeutic aims are to either protect cardiomyocytes from ischemia-associated stressors or to facilitate endogenous regeneration. The latter may be achieved by (1) induction of cardiomyocyte proliferation, (2) activation of resident cardiac progenitor cells, or (3) non-myocyte-to-cardiomyocyte conversion. The development of pharmacological approaches to enhance these under normal circumstances ineffective self-repair mechanisms may enable the regeneration of what we consider today the irreversibly damaged heart. This chapter provides an overview of the current state-of-the-art in myocardial pharmacoregeneration.