Tachycardia-induced primate model of heart failure in cardiovascular drug discovery

Congestive heart failure (CHF) is a complex, multifactoral disease involvin g genetic and environmental factors that represents a large unmet medical n eed. There are currently many animal models of CHF that have provided some insight into the etiology of this disease. However, due to the complex inte ractions of environmental and genetic components of this disease most anima l models are somewhat limited. Nonhuman primates offer a unique opportunity to investigate the genetic aspects of this complex disease due to their cl ose genetic and phenotypic similarity to humans. Here we describe a novel t achycardia-induced primate model of CNF characterized by depressed global f unction that progresses to a symptomatic stage consistent with clinical dat a. No animal model, including this one, can exactly mimic the clinical path ophysiology of CHF. However, this tachycardia-induced primate model of CHF has similarities to the dynamic state of CHF in humans and affords the oppo rtunity to evaluate changes in gene expression using genomic and proteomic technologies throughout the progression of the disease; (C) 2000 Elsevier S cience Inc. All rights reserved.