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Cardiac Myosin Activators in Systolic Heart Failure: More Friend than Foe?

  • Heart Failure (MR Mehra and E Joyce, Section Editors)
  • Published:
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Abstract

Despite the rising prevalence of HF, new evidence-based novel therapies for patients with worsening HF remain lacking, e.g., safe inotropic therapies. Traditional inotropes increase contractility by altering intracellular calcium flux, a pathway that may be responsible for the multitude of adverse effects associated with current options. Omecamtiv mecarbil, a direct myosin activator, increases contractility through a distinct pathway by increasing the proportion of myosin heads that are bound to actin in a high-affinity state. Phase II clinical trials in patients with chronic HF with this agent seem promising. A phase III trial investigating this therapy has not yet been pursued to date.

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Correspondence to Javed Butler.

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Conflict of Interest

Danyaal S. Moin, Julia Sackheim, and Carine E. Hamo declare that they have no conflict of interest. Javed Butler reports receiving research support from the National Institutes of Health, and European Union, and serves as a consultant to Novartis, Amgen, Bayer, Janssen, Cardiocell, Stealth Peptide, Relypsa, Trevena, Z Pharma, Merck, Boehringer Ingelheim, and Zensun.

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This article does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects performed by any of the authors.

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This article is part of the Topical Collection on Heart Failure

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Moin, D.S., Sackheim, J., Hamo, C.E. et al. Cardiac Myosin Activators in Systolic Heart Failure: More Friend than Foe?. Curr Cardiol Rep 18, 100 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11886-016-0778-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11886-016-0778-x

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