Heart and immune cell cleanup of damaged mitochondria after heart attack
Official title: Mitophagy pathways in cellular cross-talk in the myocardium
Funded at St. Louis VA Medical Center · NIH-11212744 · Data updated 2026-11-12
This project looks at how heart muscle and immune cells clear damaged mitochondria after a heart attack to help people with ischemic heart failure.
Quick facts
| Grant type | NIH-funded research |
|---|---|
| Study type | NIH-funded research |
| Funding institution | St. Louis VA Medical Center NIH-funded |
| Lab location | 1 site (St. Louis, UNITED STATES) |
| Project start | October 1, 2022 |
| Project end | September 30, 2026 |
| Funding year | 2026 |
| NIH project number | 5I01BX005981-04 |
| Project ID | NIH-11212744 on NIH RePORTER |
Who could benefit from this research
✓Could help
Ideal candidates would be adults who have had a myocardial infarction or who have ischemic cardiomyopathy, particularly Veterans receiving care at the St. Louis VA.
✕Less likely to help
People without prior heart attack or ischemic heart disease, or those with non-ischemic heart failure, are less likely to receive direct benefit from this research.
What this research studies
If you take part, researchers will study how your heart muscle cells and immune cells communicate after a heart attack, focusing on how damaged mitochondria are removed and how that affects inflammation. They will examine patient tissue or cell samples alongside laboratory experiments and animal models to track lysosome and mitophagy pathways. The team plans to test whether turning on a cellular cleanup program (TFEB-driven lysosome biogenesis) reduces harmful inflammation and helps repair. Findings are intended to point toward new ways to prevent or slow heart failure after MI.
Why it matters
Potential benefit: If successful, this work could lead to treatments that reduce damaging inflammation and improve heart repair after a heart attack.
How similar studies have gone: Prior laboratory and VA-supported studies found impaired lysosome function in macrophages and suggested TFEB activation can improve cellular cleanup in models, but patient-level clinical benefit has not yet been shown.
Where this research is happening
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St. Louis VA Medical Center
St. Louis, United States Active
Researchers
- Principal investigator: Diwan, Abhinav — St. Louis VA Medical Center
- Study coordinator: Diwan, Abhinav
About this research
- This is an active NIH-funded research project — typically early-stage science, not a clinical trial accepting patient enrollment.
- Some NIH-funded labs run parallel clinical studies or seek volunteers for related work. To check, contact the principal investigator or institution listed above.
- For full project details, budget, and progress reports, visit the official NIH RePORTER page.