Cardiac Metabolism in Heart Failure

Dear Colleagues,

The heart has a substantial demand for ATP in order to maintain its continuous mechanical work. While most ATP is generated by the oxidation of fatty acids, metabolic flexibility allows for the use of other fuels, such as glucose, lactate, ketones, and amino acids, which depend on substrate availability and cardiac workload. In the failing heart, energy production is compromised due to metabolic inflexibility, impaired oxidative metabolism, and an overall decrease in cardiac efficiency. Crucially, cardiometabolic derangement is not exclusive to patients with metabolic syndromes or to those with end-stage heart failure (HF), as disruptions in metabolic and/or energy-producing pathways have been observed in various cardiomyopathies, and even at early stages of disease. Moreover, depending on the type and severity of HF, substrate preference may vary, and this is mainly attributed to transcriptional changes and post-translational modifications of mitochondrial proteins and key metabolic enzymes. Importantly, strategies for modulating substrate utilization to improve oxidative metabolism are rapidly becoming popular as therapeutic modalities. This Special Issue welcomes original articles and reviews that provide new mechanistic insights into the metabolic changes that occur in HF, and whereby the targeting of metabolic pathways could potentially improve contractile function and health outcomes in HF patients.

Dr. Martijn Hoes (martijn.hoes@maastrichtuniversity.nl) will assist Dr. Chrishan Ramachandra in managing this Special Issue.

Dr. Chrishan J. Ramachandra
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. International Journal of Molecular Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. There is an Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal. For details about the APC please see here. Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.