A conceptual paradigm of heart failure and systems biology approach

Purpose of reviewThe understanding of heart failure syndrome is increased and the interpretation of the related underlying mechanisms is improved by the integrated molecular, network and phenotype analyses of systems biology methodology. Heart failure can be explained as a complex, unstable, adaptive and self-organized biological phenomenon with intrinsic regulatory mechanisms.Recent findingsThe systems biology approach, that synthesizes information from biological molecules and networks involved in heart failure progression, leads from the regulatory modules of natriuretic peptide system and RAAS, to a more comprehensive network-based biological system with clinical significance. This kind of biological and clinical analysis of heart failure is based: a) in three fields of research or disciplines, modeling, omics and complex networks, and b) in the two directions of systems biology, functional composition (bottom–up direction) and functional decomposition (top–down direction).SummaryThis systems biology approach, with a new conceptual paradigm of heart failure progression and mechanisms, is explaining the physiological and pathological conditions of heart failure with an integrated and more meaningful method.