Serotonin Receptors in Myocardial Infarction: Friend or Foe?

Acute myocardial infarction (AMI) is one of the leading causes of death worldwide and treatment costs pose a major burden on the global health care system. Despite the variety of treatment options, individual recovery can be still poor and the mortality rate, especially in the first few years after the event, remains high. Therefore, intense research is currently focused on identifying novel target molecules to improve the outcome following AMI. One of the potentially interesting targets is the serotonergic system (5-HT system), not at least because of its connection to mental disorders. It is known that patients suffering from AMI have an increased risk of developing depression and vice versa. This implicates that the 5-HT system can be affected in response to AMI and might thus represent a target structure for patients' treatment. This review aims to highlight the importance of the 5-HT system after AMI by describing the role of individual serotonin receptors (5-HTR) in the regulation of physiological and pathophysiological responses. It particularly focuses on the signaling pathways of the serotonin receptors 1, 2, 4, and 7, which are expressed in the cardiovascular system, during disease onset, and the following remodeling process. This overview also emphasizes the importance of the 5-HT system in AMI etiology and highlights 5-HTRs as potential treatment targets.