The CTVB Paper of the Month rewards one recent scientific paper of members of the institutions of the research center.
In September 2016 the publication "NOX2 amplifies acetaldehyde-mediated cardiomyocyte mitochondrial dysfunction in alcoholic cardiomyopathy" was elected as the Paper of the Month.
Cardiac insufficiency - commonly heart failure - is the inability of the heart to adequate supply blood to the body. Affected persons perceive this as breathlessness, weariness or water aggregations in the legs. Cardiac insuffieciency is one of the most serious diseases of our time. Approximately 1.8 Million affected People live in Germany. Heart failure caused by alcohol abuse is responsible for more than one fifth of the heart muscle diseases (myocardial diseases) not caused by a circulatory disorder. In case of an alcoholic cardiomyopathy, the regular consumption of alcohol results in an injury of the heart muscle and finally in cardiac insufficiency. Although it was assumed that metabolic products of the potable alcohol Ethanol plays an important role in the development of alcoholic cardiomyopathy, the exact development was unexplained until last.
Scientists of the Research Group around Prof. Wenzel (Center of Cardiology) of the University Medical Center Mainz now successfully described this mechanism for the first time: In the heart muscle cells Ethanol leads with its Degradation product Acetaldehyd via activation of an particular Enzyme (NADPH-Oxidase, NOX2) to an increasing production of Oxygen radicals. These Oxygen radicals again disturb the function of the mitochondria, the power plants of the cell. The lack of chemical energy affect the heart muscle cells ability of contraction. In Addition the cells get destroyed and replaced by scar tissue. An irreparable heart muscle damage and therefore a chronic heart insufficiency arises.
NOX2 amplifies acetaldehyde-mediated cardiomyocyte mitochondrial dysfunction in alcoholic cardiomyopathy
Scientific Reports
DOI: 10.1038/srep32554
Brandt M, Garlapati V, Oelze M, Sotiriou E, Knorr M, Kröller-Schön S, Kossmann S, Schönfelder T, Morawietz H, Schulz E, Schultheiss HP, Daiber A, Münzel T, Wenzel P