Imagine feeling tired and short of breath much of the time. You can’t enjoy simple things like shopping or going for a walk. Impaired thinking, memory loss and swelling in the body also make it difficult to enjoy life.
In the United States, 5.7 million people in the United States experience some or all of these symptoms on a daily basis with heart failure, according to the National Institutes of Health. Each year an estimated 300,000 people die from heart failure and 660,000 new cases are diagnosed each year.
Yulong Li, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor in the UNMC Department of Emergency Medicine, recently received a four-year, $1.5 million grant funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) National Heart, Lung and Blood Instituteto study the role the nervous system plays in heart failure. The ultimate goal is to find a new therapy to extend life and reduce death in heart failure patients.
He and his team will evaluate baroreflex dysfunction in the nervous system of rodent models to find out why the aortic baroreceptor neuron located in the neck sends signals to the brain, then affects the heart. Clinical and laboratory studies have confirmed a contribution of arterial baroreflex impairment in heart failure. However, the mechanisms of what’s called baroreflex dysfunction remain unclear.
“Heart failure has no cure and it gets worse,” Dr. Li said. “We want to find out why the nervous system controls the heart and makes it excited and start beating faster. If there is nervous system dysfunction, the heart function has trouble. Though not everyone with heart failure starts out with nervous system trouble, heart failure ultimately affects all patients’ nervous systems.”
In heart failure, the heart is weakened over time and can’t pump enough blood to keep up with the body’s needs. Diseases like diabetes, high blood pressure and coronary artery disease can induce heart failure. Though the disease is chronic and progressive, with no cures, medications and lifestyle changes can help people live longer and more active lives.
The grant is the first major NIH grant for the UNMC Department of Emergency Medicine, which was created in 2007.
“This grant is important for the development of a basic science program in the department of emergency medicine,” said Robert Muelleman, M.D., chairman of the department. “It will help us progress in the areas of translational research. Dr Li is a talented researcher. His dedication and perseverance ultimately resulted in this grant. It was well deserved.”
Dr. Muelleman also said the grant gives the young department academic credibility not only among other UNMC academic departments, but academic emergency departments at other institutions as well.
“We are grateful to Dr. Irving Zucker for his mentorship, guidance, and advice. He has been very supportive of the development of a basic science program in the department,” Dr. Muelleman said.
Dr. Zucker is professor and chairman of the UNMC cardiovascular, cellular/integrative physiology department and a longtime researcher of heart disease.
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