# Biomarkers for Heart Failure Prognosis: Proteins, Genetic Scores and Non-coding RNAs

## TL;DR

This paper reviews the use of proteins, genetic scores, and non-coding RNAs as biomarkers for predicting heart failure outcomes.

## Contribution

The paper evaluates the potential of non-coding RNAs and genetic risk scores as novel biomarkers for heart failure prognosis.

## Key findings

- Proteins are widely used biomarkers for heart failure but may not always be cardiac-specific.
- Non-coding RNAs show promise as novel biomarkers due to their unique characteristics.
- Genetic risk scores could enhance disease risk estimation, though their application is still in early stages.

## Abstract

Heart failure (HF) is a complex disease in which cardiomyocyte injury leads to a cascade of inflammatory and fibrosis pathway activation, thereby causing decrease in cardiac function. As a result, several biomolecules are released which can be identified easily in circulating body fluids. The complex biological processes involved in the development and worsening of HF require an early treatment strategy to stop deterioration of cardiac function. Circulating biomarkers provide not only an ideal platform to detect subclinical changes, their clinical application also offers the opportunity to monitor disease treatment. Many of these biomarkers can be quantified with high sensitivity; allowing their clinical application to be evaluated beyond diagnostic purposes as potential tools for HF prognosis. Though the field of biomarkers is dominated by protein molecules, non-coding RNAs (microRNAs, long non-coding RNAs, and circular RNAs) are novel and promising biomarker candidates that encompass several ideal characteristics required in the biomarker field. The application of genetic biomarkers as genetic risk scores in disease prognosis, albeit in its infancy, holds promise to improve disease risk estimation. Despite the multitude of biomarkers that have been available and identified, the majority of novel biomarker candidates are not cardiac-specific, and instead may simply be a readout of systemic inflammation or other pathological processes. Thus, the true value of novel biomarker candidates in HF prognostication remains unclear. In this article, we discuss the current state of application of protein, genetic as well as non-coding RNA biomarkers in HF risk prognosis.