Horizons in Medicine and Biology: Tweaking the adrenergic system for cardiac protection. Keynote lecture with Jean-Luc Balligand (University of Louvain)

Twisting the adrenergic system for cardiac protection is the title of the new keynote lecture in the Horizons in Medicine and Biology cycle, given by Jean-Luc Balligand, full professor at the University of Louvain.

Catecholamines acting on adrenoreceptors are classically known to exert stimulatory effects on cardiac excitation-contraction coupling on the short term, but adverse effects on myocardial remodeling on the long term. The relatively recent discovery of the third isotype of beta-adrenoreceptors (B3AR) in the heart, as well as its atypical regulation and coupling under stress, both adds a layer of complexity and opens new perspectives for its pharmacologic modulation in cardiac diseases.  Contrary to B1-2Ars, the B3AR is upregulated in human heart failure and relatively resistant to homologous desensitization, thereby retaining efficient signaling under neurohormonal stress. B3AR opposes the adverse effects of chronic catecholaminergic stimulation, particularly on cardiac hypertrophy. The lecture will illustrate the mechanistic dissection of this protective signaling through unbiased cardiac transcriptomic, metabolomic analyses ex vivo and functional validation in homotypic cell culture systems in vitro to identify a critical role of endogenous nitric oxide and the transcription factor, NRF2. Studies on the regulation of cardiac remodeling are being extended to B3AR in adipose tissue under obesogenic diets, placing B3AR as a central player in inter-organ communication in cardiovascular pathophysiology.

Web streaming on the YouTube channel of the Sant'Anna School at the following LINK.