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Metabolic mechanism and intervention strategy of atrial fibrillation in the elderly

YANG Yuan-Qing¹, JIN Ling-Yan², CHEN Zi-Wei³, ZHENG Qiang-Sun², QIN Xing-Hua^1,*

¹School of Life Sciences, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi’an 710072, China；²Department of Cardiovascular Medicine, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an 710004, China；³Research Center for Prevention and Treatment of Respiratory Disease, School of Clinical Medicine, Xi’an Medical University, Xi’an 710021, China

Abstract

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is a cardiovascular epidemic that occurs primarily in the elderly with primary cardiovascular diseases, leading to severe consequences such as stroke and heart failure. The heart is an energy-consuming organ, which requires a high degree of metabolic flexibility to ensure a quick switch of metabolic substrates to meet its energy needs in response to physiological and pathological stimulation. Metabolism is closely related to the occurrence of AF, and AF patients manifest metabolic inflexibility, such as insulin resistance and the metabolic shift from aerobic metabolism to anaerobic glycolysis. Moreover, our research group and the others have shown that metabolic inflexibility is a crucial pathologic mechanism for AF. Energy metabolism is closely linked to the aging process and aging-related diseases, and impaired metabolic flexibility is considered as an essential driver of aging. Therefore, this review focuses on the alteration of metabolic flexibility in the elderly and reveals that impaired metabolic flexibility may be an important driver for the high prevalence of AF in the elderly, hoping to provide intervention strategies for the prevention and treatment of AF in the elderly.

Key words: atrial fibrillation; aging; metabolic disorder; metabolic flexibility

Received: 　　Accepted:

Corresponding author: 秦兴华　　E-mail: xinghuaqin@nwpu.edu.cn

DOI: 10.13294/j.aps.2023.0088

Citing This Article：

YANG Yuan-Qing, JIN Ling-Yan, CHEN Zi-Wei, ZHENG Qiang-Sun, QIN Xing-Hua. Metabolic mechanism and intervention strategy of atrial fibrillation in the elderly. Acta Physiol Sin 2023; 75 (6): 779-787 (in Chinese with English abstract).