Grant: Doctoral Research Award: Canada Graduate Scholarships

A growing number of Canadians (over 50,000) are diagnosed with heart failure each year. Heart failure is a chronic condition where the weakened cardiac muscle can no longer effectively pump blood to the rest of the body. Like a car engine, the healthy heart uses 'fuels' to meet its high energy demand and sustain its contractile function. However, the failing heart is akin to an engine out of fuel and is not only running low on fuels, but also running on the wrong type of fuels. While the healthy heart can tap into different 'grades/types of fuels', namely fats and carbohydrates, the failing heart loses its flexibility to use different fuels and becomes inefficient at fuel consumption, ultimately becoming energy-starved. Therefore, my research is focused on understanding a new 'grade of fuel' that is understudied - ketones. Ketones are produced by our livers during starvation and intense exercise. However, recent evidence suggests that the failing heart uses more ketones for energy compared to a healthy heart. Thus, are ketones a good or bad fuel for the failing heart? Answering this question will be the objective of my research project. To do this, mice with heart failure will have their hearts removed from their body and fixed to a system that can pump simulated blood through their isolated beating hearts. Ketones will then be added to the simulated blood and heart function will be assessed to see if ketones can improve how well the heart is working and using energy. Furthermore, we will also study the effects of ketones by feeding mice, with heart failure, a ketogenic diet. Heart function will then be monitored throughout the treatment to determine if this high-fat/low-carbohydrate diet can improve the failing heart's function. From these experiments and results, I hope to direct future therapeutic approaches for treating heart failure. If ketones are good for the failing heart, a ketone supplement or ketogenic diet could be used to treat heart failure patients.