by Hannah Buckelew

Yajing Wang, M.D., Ph.D., Director of Basic and Translational Research and professor in the UAB Department of Biomedical Engineering, has been awarded a three-year $300,000 TPA grant from the American Heart Association for her project, titled, “Targeting Cardiokine Dysfunction for Treating Diabetic Ischemic Heart Failure.”

While treatment has vastly improved for heart attacks and reduced death rates among patients without diabetes, patients with Type 2 diabetes still face a multitude of heart failure risks.

“Our lab is focused on cardiokines- an essential heart cell necessary for health,” Wang says. “The precise way diabetes changes these cardiokines and causes heart failure is unclear. That’s what we are seeking to determine in our research.”

Wang, alongside her research team, has identified CTRP9 as a potent cardiokine that protects the heart. Previous studies found that an enzyme known as Cathespin G (CathG) cuts CTRP9 into fragments which leave the blood and the heart. In simulated heart attacks, removing CathG increases damage. Its absence may lead to enlarged hearts and other cardiac issues that are observed in patients with diabetes. These findings suggest that diabetes reduces CTRP9 activation by CathG which can lead to heart failure.

Wang seeks to determine what the fragment creates when CathG cuts through CTRP9 and whether that fragment, if administered by drug, has the potential to protect against heart failure. Additionally, her team will research if the loss of CathG in heart cells will affect post-heart attack recovery and whether restoring CathG in heart cells improve CTRP9 activation and produce useful fragments.

“With the support of this project, we’ll gain a deeper understanding of CTRP9 and how diabetes interferes with its protective abilities,” Wang says. “In diabetic hearts, fixing the system that cuts CTRP9 may be more effective than simply increasing it.”