Chemogenetic activation of intracardiac cholinergic neurons improves cardiac function in pressure overload-induced heart failure

Intracardiac ganglia form the final common pathway for the parasympathetic innervation of the heart. This study has used a novel chemogenetic approach within transgenic ChAT-Cre rats [expressing only Cre-recombinase in choline acetyl transferase (ChAT) neurons] to selectively increase intracardiac cholinergic parasympathetic activity to the heart in a pressure overload-induced heart failure model. The findings from this study confirm that selective activation of intracardiac cholinergic neurons lessens cardiac dysfunction and mortality seen in heart failure, identifying a novel downstream cardiac-selective target for increasing cardioprotective parasympathetic activity in heart failure.