This article was originally published through VCU Health News Center.
October 26, 2026
VCU receives $3.8 million NIH grant to study potential heart failure therapy
The five-year award will support a clinical study to better understand whether interleukin-1 blockers can reduce inflammation levels and improve health outcomes for patients.
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If patients with heart failure have higher levels of inflammation, they may experience worse symptoms and have an increased risk of hospitalization. (Getty Images)
By Olivia Trani
Researchers at Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine and University of Virginia School of Medicine were recently awarded a five-year $3.8 million grant from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health. The funds will be used to launch a phase 2 clinical trial at VCU Health that will explore the effectiveness of an anti-inflammatory medication for treating patients with heart failure.
Inflammation is a natural part of the body’s immune response to infections and injuries, but too much over time can cause or worsen health issues, including heart failure.
Affecting more than 6 million adults in the United States, heart failure is a chronic condition where the heart muscle is unable to pump blood efficiently enough to meet the body’s needs. People with this condition can experience fatigue, shortness of breath, poor appetite, and swelling of the limbs and abdomen. Thanks to advancements in medicine, patients with heart failure can usually manage their symptoms while living active lives, but in severe cases, the condition can cause life-threatening symptoms that require hospitalization.
For patients with heart failure, having higher inflammation levels is associated with worse symptoms and increased risk of hospitalization. Scientists have been working to develop treatments that address this issue, but there is currently no federally approved therapy that targets inflammation in heart failure patients.
“Inflammation in heart disease is well-recognized by the medical community to be an untackled frontier,” said Cory Trankle, M.D., a cardiologist at VCU Health Pauley Heart Center and an associate professor in the School of Medicine’s Department of Internal Medicine. “We hope our research brings us one step closer to new treatments that help our patients stay out of the hospital and live active lives.”
Trankle is leading this effort with co-principal investigator Antonio Abbate, M.D., Ph.D., a cardiologist and professor at University of Virginia School of Medicine, along with co-investigator Benjamin Van Tassell, Pharm.D., a professor at Brigham Young University. Abbate and Van Tassell have been long-time collaborators on this research effort, having both led earlier clinical studies on anti-inflammatory treatments as faculty at VCU School of Medicine and School of Pharmacy, respectively. VCU Health Pauley Heart Center has since become internationally renowned for its studies focused on advancing knowledge on inflammation and heart health.
Heart failure and inflammation: How researchers will study a potential treatment
For this new study, the research team will assess the effectiveness of an anti-inflammatory drug for treating heart failure patients. The medication is designed to block interleukin-1, a protein that promotes inflammation in the body.
“Inflammation is one of the ways the body tries to repair itself when injured or fight off infection, but when inflammation levels are in overdrive, it becomes counterproductive,” Trankle said. “The challenge has been designing a medication that keeps inflammation in check without inhibiting the body’s overall immune system. Interleukin-1 blockers may be a potential solution because it targets one small component of the inflammation response.”
Additionally, unlike other anti-inflammatory medications that require daily self-administered injections at home, newer agents may allow for less frequent dosing, including some that may allow for a single dose only while patients are still at the hospital.
The study will involve volunteer participants who have been hospitalized at VCU Medical Center with acute heart failure, which is a sudden, rapid decline in heart function that requires emergency medical care. The participants will be randomly assigned to either receive the anti-inflammation treatment or a placebo.
The team will then assess whether the medication reduces inflammation in patients and improves their signs and symptoms of heart failure two weeks after hospitalization. This will include analyzing ultrasounds of the heart, measuring blood pressure, and monitoring changes in exercise capacity, among other tests. VCU Medical Center will serve as the clinical site for this trial, and the team’s UVA collaborators will analyze patient blood samples in the lab to identify indicators of inflammation. The project is intended for 80 participants, and the researchers aim to start enrolling patients in early 2027.
The results from this study will inform whether interleukin-1 blockers should be considered for a larger clinical trial, which would involve more patients over a longer period of time to better understand whether the medication improves long-term health outcomes.
“Every attempt is a valuable lesson learned and helpful building blocks for ultimately improving health outcomes for patients,” Trankle said.