In a rat study, giving the peptide hexarelin twice daily for a month helped hearts recover after a heart attack. It worked by boosting a protein called PTEN and turning down the Akt/mTOR pathway, which together reduced heart damage, oxidative stress, and improved heart pumping ability.

Hexarelin is a synthetic growth hormone-releasing peptide that exerts cardioprotective effects. However, its cardioprotective effect against heart failure (HF) is yet to be explained. This study investigated the therapeutic role of hexarelin and the mechanisms underlying its cardioprotective effects against coronary artery ligation (CAL)-induced HF in rats. Rats with four weeks of permanent CAL, induced myocardial infarction, and HF were randomly separated into four groups: the control group (Ctrl), sham group (Sham), hexarelin treatment group (HF + Hx), and heart failure group (HF). The rats were treated with subcutaneous injection of hexarelin (100 μg/kg) in the treatment group or saline in the other groups twice a day for 30 days. Left ventricular (LV) function, oxidative stress, apoptosis, molecular analyses, and cardiac structural and pathological changes in rats were assessed. The treatment of HF rats with hexarelin significantly induced the upregulation of phosphatase and tensin homologue (PTEN) expression and inhibited the phosphorylation of protein kinase B (Akt) and mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) to significantly improve LV function, ameliorate myocardial remodeling, and reduce oxidative stress. These findings indicate that hexarelin attenuates CAL-induced HF in rats by ameliorating myocardial remodeling, LV dysfunction, and oxidative stress via the upmodulation of PTEN signaling and downregulation of the Akt/mTOR signaling pathway.