Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases

Established in 2019, the Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases is affiliated with the Department of Cardiology at the First Affiliated Hospital of University of South China, which is designated as a unit of National Project Unit for Enhancing the DiagnosisTreatment Capacity of Complex Refractory Diseases (in the cardiovascular field), a co-building unit of the National Regional Medical Center for Cardiovascular Diseases, Hunan Provincial Key Clinical Specialty,accredited “China Heart Failure Center”. In 2020, the Institute was approved by the Hunan Provincial Department of ScienceTechnology as the Hunan Clinical Medical Research Center for Myocardial Injury. In 2023, it was accredited as the Hunan Provincial Key Laboratory of Multi-OmicsArtificial Intelligence Big Data for Heart Diseases. The Institute integrates clinical diagnosis, scientific research,translational medicine, focusing on coronary artery disease, hypertension, heart failure, cardiomyopathy,other cardiovascular conditions. It also focuses on the development of an AI-assisted decision-making platform for cardiovascular diseases, as well as mechanism researchdrug development in the field of cardiovascular diseases.

Ⅱ. Research Focus

The 2024 Report on Cardiovascular HealthDiseases in China states that cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) remain in a continuous upward stage. Specifically, CVDs account for 48.98%47.35% of the total deaths in ruralurban areas respectively. In Hunan Province, the mortality rate of cardiovascular diseases ranks among the highest in the country. In response to such challenges, both the Outline of the “Healthy China 2030” Plan and the 14th Five-Year Plan for National Health have put forward initiatives to strengthen the early detection of cardiovascular diseases, promote precision medicine,advance the development of smart healthcare. While focusing on the preventiontreatment of refractorysevere cardiovascular diseases, the Institute concentrates on multi-omics research in cardiovascular diseases, prospective cohort studies on CVDs, clinicalbasic research on gas signaling molecules in cardiovascular diseases,energy metabolism disordersatrial fibrillation (AF)

(i) Prospective Cohort Studies on CVDs

Early detectionintervention for myocardial injury are critical to improving the effectiveness of diagnosistreatment of cardiovascular diseases, so it is particularly important to carry out research on the early diagnosis of cardiovascular diseases. The Institute establishes patient databasesbiobanks for conditions like hypertension, coronary artery disease, arrhythmias,valvular heart disease. By collecting clinical symptoms, serological markers, electrocardiographic data,imaging metrics (e.g., echocardiography, MRI), the team aims to identify early diagnostic biomarkers,develop risk prediction models for myocardial injury. The Institute will deepen the cross-sectoral cooperation between medicineengineering communities,jointly establish a translational research platform with leading medical technology enterprises. Goals include advancing three to five innovative achievementsclinical trials, achieving an annual technology transfer value of no less than 1 million yuan,ultimately building a center for cardiovascular translational medicine that forms a closed loop of “clinical practice-scientific research-transformation”.

(ii) Multi-Omics Research in CVDs

The mechanism of the occurrencedevelopment of cardiovascular diseases involves regulationpositive/negative feedback regulation at multiple levels,presents imaging changes. The Institute mainly focuses on genome, transcriptomeproteome to identify cardiovascular disease-related genesgene function enrichment analysis, optimizationselection strategies of cardiovascular disease risk pathways,research on individual drug responses, etc. It will develop a heart disease-specific transcription factor-target gene regulatory networkintegrate itsignalmetabolic pathways to reconstruct existing biological pathways; through in-depth information mining of high-throughput sequencing data from cardiovascular biological sample banksbig data analysis of genomeproteome, build a multi-omics bioinformatics platform related to heart diseases, providing functions such as query, calculation, functional annotation, network constructionvisualization for biologists. At the same time, it will also establish a specialized disease database for radiomics, extract high-dimensional information contained in medical images through artificial intelligence methods, popularize the professional knowledge of identifying medical images to primary medical institutions,carry out medical imaging omics research in aspects such as auxiliary diagnosis, efficacy evaluationdisease alarm prediction. With the integration of multi-level information centered on cardiovascular disease cases, we will build a domestically leading integratedinnovative platform for “cardiovascular multi-omics - imaging-AI”. Ultimately, we will realize the innovative development of precision medicine for cardiovascular diseases in the context of big data.

(iii) Clinicalbasic research on CVDsGas Signaling Molecules

The imbalance of endogenous H2S microenvironment is involved in the intrinsic mechanism of the occurrencedevelopment of myocardialvascular remodeling,reconstructing the homeostasis of H2S microenvironment will become a new target for antagonizing myocardialvascular remodeling. The research team found that endogenous H2S/CSE imbalance mediates the mechanism of myocardial remodeling, which is closely related to cell apoptosis, autophagy disorder, oxidative stress, excessive endoplasmic reticulum stress,signal regulation such as PI3K/AKT1, JAK/STAT, TGF-β1miRNA. It was also found that endogenous H2S microenvironment is involved in the mechanism of myocardial electrophysiological remodeling,maintaining the homeostasis of endogenous H2S microenvironment may be a new strategy for antagonizing arrhythmia. It was further found that the mechanism of myocardial protective effect of cardiac exercise rehabilitation is related to the remote regulation of exosome-related miRNAthe reconstruction of endogenous H2S microenvironment homeostasis. The research team also carried out research on new drug-eluting stents,took the lead in the world in constructing a "molecular atherectomy" specific drug-eluting stent——TGFα-SAP coated stentmitochondria-targeted H2S-releasing coated stent, which can specifically inhibit excessive intimal hyperplasiapromote endothelial repair, thus effectively improving the efficacy of stent implantation. This research has reached the international advanced levelhas broad clinical application prospects. Relevant technologies have obtained 1 national invention patent2 international invention patents.

(iv) Energy MetabolismAtrial Fibrillation (AF)

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common persistent arrhythmia in clinical practice, accompanied by high disabilitymortality rates, although its mechanism has not been clarified. Current studies have revealed that AF has electrical remodeling, structural remodeling, autonomic nerve remodelingenergy metabolism remodeling, all of which are closely related to the maintenancedevelopment of AF, namely "AF begets AF". Among them, abnormal energy metabolism plays a fundamental role in these cardiac remodeling processes. When AF occurs, the excitation-contraction coupling in atrial tissue is abnormally enhanced. When the atria are in a state of relative ischemiahypoxia, atrial mitochondrial function is impaired, which in turn leads to weakened function of electron transport chain complexes in atrial tissuedecreased expression of metabolism-related enzymes in mitochondria, resulting in restricted oxidation of fatty acidspyruvate,shifting glucose metabolism to lactate production to maintain ATP supply. The research team focuses on regulating abnormal glucoselipid metabolism to improve atrial fibrosis, reduce atrial structuralelectrical remodeling,fundamentally improve the occurrencedevelopment of AF.

Ⅲ. Research Teams

Building on a well-established research infrastructurea strong track record in scientific research,focusing on clinical challenges, the Institute has refined its research directions and formed research teams which focus on:

Prospective Cohort Studies of Cardiovascular Diseases (Led by Prof. Tang Huifang);
Multi-Omics Research of Cardiovascular Diseases (Led by Prof. Tang Huifang);
ClinicalBasic Research on Cardiovascular Diseases and Gas Signaling Molecules (Led by Prof. Yang Jun); and
Energy MetabolismAtrial Fibrillation (Led by Associate Prof. Hu Hengjing).