Novel protein interactions in protein kinase D regulation and functions in the heart

心力衰竭是一种由其他心血管疾病(如心脏病发作或高血压失控)引起的疾病，在英国有近100万人受到影响。尽管接受了现有药物的治疗，但近40%被诊断为心力衰竭的人在一年内死亡(这一死亡率高于大多数癌症的死亡率)，反映了这种疾病的严重性和对新疗法的需求。心力衰竭的两个基本特征是心脏形状的改变，心脏变大，以及心脏执行正常泵功能的能力受损。这个项目将研究在心脏中发现的一种蛋白质，称为蛋白激酶D(PKD)，它被怀疑对心脏的形状变化和泵功能抑制都有贡献，重点是PKD如何与其他蛋白质相互作用带来其影响。我们希望这项工作将揭示新的研究途径，以开发更有效的心力衰竭治疗方法。

Heart failure is a disease that occurs as a result of other cardiovascular diseases (such as a heart attack or uncontrolled high blood pressure) and affects almost a million people in the UK. The severity of the disease and the need for new treatments are reflected by the fact that nearly 40% of people who are diagnosed with heart failure die within a year (a rate of death which is higher than that associated with most cancers), despite receiving treatment with the available drugs. Two cardinal features of heart failure are a change in the shape of the heart, which becomes enlarged, and a compromised ability of the heart to perform its normal pump function. This project will investigate a protein that is found in the heart, called protein kinase D (PKD), which is suspected to contribute to both the shape change and the depressed pump function, focusing on how PKD interacts with other proteins to bring about its effects. We hope that this work will reveal new avenues of investigation towards the development of more effective treatments for heart failure.