Growing evidence suggests that different interventions in the pink1/parkin pathway-mediated mitochondrial regulation can effectively prevent heart failure (Shires et al., 2018; Mukherjee et al., 2015).In a recent study, adenosine monophosphate activated protein kinase (AMPK) in myocardial tissue samples from heart failure patients and transverse aortic coarctation (TAC)-induced mouse heart failure models was found to accelerate isoform switching from AMPKα2 to AMPKα1, accompanied by a decrease in mitophagy and mitochondrial function (Wang et al., 2018). The gene discussed is PRKAA2; the disease is persistent truncus arteriosus.