Anti-heart autoimmunity after acute decompensation of heart failure (C5)

The prospective clinical study "AHF-ImmunoCS" analyses in detail the immune response of patients to acute decompensation in heart failure within the framework of the CRC project C5. The focus of the project is on the characterisation of autoantibodies with the aim to develop new therapeutic approaches for heart failure.

Background

Patients with heart failure recover differently after acute decompensation. Since the reasons for these different courses are largely unclear, there are also no adequate therapeutic options yet. However, we have recently made a key observation by showing that the development of anti-myocardial autoantibodies is associated with poor clinical outcome. The type and strength of this autoimmune response is hypothesised to contribute to how heart failure progresses.

Rationale and aim

We want to analyse in detail the autoantibody response after acute decompensation of heart failure. A better understanding of this autoantibody response should form the basis for new diagnostic tests and ideally also pave the way for an immunotherapy of heart failure.

Approach

Autoantibodies are detected in the blood of patients with acutely decompensated heart failure – directly at the time of decompensation and up to 18 months later. In parallel, the composition of leukocytes in peripheral blood is also analysed. For the detection of the anti-myocardial autoantibodies and for cellular immunophenotyping, we use immunofluorescence, FACS and so-called antigen chips. These biochips have a large number of binding sites in a very small space and thus make it possible to find out which antigenic target structures the autoantibodies recognise.