New and future heart failure drugs

Abstract

In the past decade, our understanding of heart failure pathophysiology has advanced significantly, resulting in the development of new medications such as angiotensin–neprilysin inhibitors, sodium–glucose cotransporter-2 inhibitors and oral soluble guanylate cyclase stimulators. Backed by positive findings from large randomized controlled trials, recommendations for their use were recently included in the 2022 AHA/ACC/HFSA guidelines and 2023 ESC guidelines for management of heart failure. Promising drugs for future heart failure treatment include agents that modulate the neurohormonal system, vasodilators, anti-inflammatory drugs, mitotropes, which improve deranged energy metabolism of the failing heart, and myotropes, which increase cardiac contractility by affecting cardiac sarcomere function. Here, we discuss these new and future heart failure drugs. We explain their mechanisms of action, critically evaluate their performance in clinical trials and summarize the clinical scenarios in which the latest guidelines recommend their use. This Review aims to offer clinicians and researchers a comprehensive overview of novel therapeutic classes in heart failure treatment. Haghighat et al. provide an overview of the newest advances in heart failure drugs, describing their mechanisms of action and performance in recent clinical trials, and discuss the most promising future directions for the field.