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MYOCARDIAL INFARCTION

High-throughput methods to help understand heart disease

Nature Cardiovascular Research volume 1, pages 798–799 (2022)Cite this article

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Recent developments in high-throughput, in-depth sequencing platforms are providing opportunities to improve our understanding of biology and disease. Here, Kuppe et al. use a combinatorial approach to relate transcriptional changes to translational and functional implications for the heart in response to myocardial infarction.

Understanding molecular biology is a daunting task. Human cells contain tens of thousands of genes, encoding products that perform their function by complex interactions ensuing an even larger interactome. Despite the fact that biologists have chipped away at the unknown by researching one gene and one pathway at a time, a vast number of mechanisms remain poorly understood. However, in the past decade, high-throughput methods are enabling us to study the whole transcriptome at ever increasing resolution. Next-generation sequencing, enhanced sensitivity of RNA amplification protocols, and new tissue collection and handling platforms have enabled the sequencing of the full transcriptome of hundreds of thousands of single cells. Indeed, this has resulted in many studies that have characterized human cell populations, including cells of the healthy and diseased human heart1,2,3,4,5. Studies that investigate the diseased heart typically characterize cellular heterogeneity, formulate subclasses of cells, and can provide the basis for functional follow-up experiments by examining notable patterns of gene expression, which can include markers, ligands, receptors and transcription factors. This detailed mapping of biological changes in disease can provide a multitude of insights and potential therapeutic targets.

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Fig. 1: A multi-omic approach to characterize cellular remodeling after myocardial infarction.

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Acknowledgements

This work has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the grant agreement no. 874764 (REANIMA) and was supported by the Dutch Cardiovascular Alliance (DCVA), an initiative with support of the Dutch Heart Foundation, DCVA2017-18 ARENA-PRIME.

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  1. Hubrecht Institute, Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) and University Medical Center, Utrecht, The Netherlands

    Martijn Wehrens, Louk T. Timmer & Eva van Rooij

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  1. Martijn Wehrens
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  2. Louk T. Timmer
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  3. Eva van Rooij
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Correspondence to Eva van Rooij.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Wehrens, M., Timmer, L.T. & van Rooij, E. High-throughput methods to help understand heart disease. Nat Cardiovasc Res 1, 798–799 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s44161-022-00126-5

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