HFpEF in the Spotlight: Interorgan Communication, Phenotypes, and Therapeutic Opportunities

Xinliang (Xin) Ma, MD, PhD, is a tenured Professor of Emergency Medicine and Medicine at Thomas Jefferson University. His research focuses on myocardial ischemia/reperfusion injury, ischemic heart failure, and adipose-heart communication in diabetic cardiovascular disease. His team pioneered the discovery of adiponectin’s cardioprotective effects and recently identified exosome-mediated adipocyte-cardiomyocyte communication as an important driver of heart failure. Continuously funded by NIH R01 grants since 1998, Dr. Ma has published more than 290 original articles, received over 41,600 citations, and achieved an h-index of 87. His honors include major AHA research awards, including the Distinguished Achievement Award from the AHA BCVS Council.

Kamil A. Kobak is a Research Assistant Professor in the Aging and Metabolism Program at the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation. He is a cardiovascular and skeletal muscle researcher whose work focuses on HFpEF and cardiometabolic aging, particularly the mechanisms linking skeletal muscle dysfunction to cardiovascular disease. His research integrates aged mouse models of HFpEF with cardiac and skeletal muscle phenotyping, mitochondrial bioenergetics, stable-isotope labeling, and proteomics to investigate proteostasis, mitochondrial dysfunction, and muscle-derived circulating factors involved in interorgan communication. Dr. Kobak is a recipient of an American Heart Association Career Development Award and the American Physiological Society Cardiovascular Section Young Investigator Award. He has published in leading journals including JACC: Basic to Translational Science, the Journal of Cachexia, Sarcopenia and Muscle, Function, and the Journal of Molecular and Cellular Cardiology. He also serves on the Youth Editorial Board of The Journal of Cardiovascular Aging.

Xizhen Xu is a Chief Physician at Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology. He serves on several national and regional cardiovascular academic committees and is a member of the inaugural Youth Editorial Board of Journal of Geriatric Cardiology and Chief Expert of the Pulmonary Hypertension MDT at Tongji Hospital. His clinical and research interests include coronary artery disease, atrial fibrillation, heart failure, resistant hypertension, pulmonary vascular diseases, metabolic cardiovascular diseases, individualized antiplatelet therapy, and atherosclerosis. He has led or participated in more than 10 NSFC-funded projects and published over 50 SCI-indexed papers, with more than 2,000 citations. He received the First Prize of the Hubei Provincial Science and Technology Progress Award in 2015 as the second contributor.