Science signaling podcast: 29 october 2013

This Podcast features an interview with Walter Koch, senior author of a Research Article that appears in the 29 October 2013 issue of Science Signaling, about a posttranslational modification that can help prevent the death of cardiac myocytes in the context of heart failure following cardiac ischemia. Cardiac ischemia, the reduction of blood flow to the heart muscle, deprives heart cells of oxygen and nutrients and can cause the cells to die, leading to heart failure. Treatments for ischemia-induced heart failure focus on nitric oxide (NO) and G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) signaling pathways. These two pathways are generally considered to be molecularly distinct, but a new study by Huang et al. reports that the NO and GPCR pathways converge on GPCR kinase 2 (GRK2), which acts downstream of GPCRs to mediate the death of cardiac myocytes in response to ischemia. S-nitrosothiols promoted S-nitrosylation of GRK2, thus inhibiting its activity and reducing cardiac myocyte death following ischemia.

Duke Scholars

Author Walter J. Koch Surgery, Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery