Identifying functional metabolic shifts in heart failure with the integration of omics data and a cardiomyocyte-specific, genome-scale model

Summary The heart is a metabolic omnivore, known to consume many different carbon substrates in order to maintain function. In diseased states, the heart’s metabolism can shift between different carbon substrates; however, there is some disagreement in the field as to the metabolic shifts seen in end-stage heart failure and whether all heart failure converges to a common metabolic phenotype. Here, we present a new, validated cardiomyocyte-specific GEnome-scale metabolic Network REconstruction (GENRE), iCardio , and use the model to identify common shifts in metabolic functions across heart failure omics datasets. We demonstrate the utility of iCardio in interpreting heart failure gene expression data by identifying Tasks Inferred from Differential Expression (TIDEs) which represent metabolic functions associated with changes in gene expression. We identify decreased NO and Neu5Ac synthesis as common metabolic markers of heart failure across datasets. Further, we highlight the differences in metabolic functions seen across studies, further highlighting the complexity of heart failure. The methods presented for constructing a tissue-specific model and identifying TIDEs can be extended to multiple tissue and diseases of interest.