OPA1 and heart failure: 2008). Optic atrophy 1 (OPA1) and dynamin-related protein 1 (DRP1) are machinery proteins that are involved in the fusion and fission of mitochondria, respectively. Downregulation of DRP1 delays apoptotic cell death (Frank et al. 2001). Conversely, reduced OPA1 expression induces the release of cytochrome c and apoptosis (Olichon et al. 2003). Impairment of mitochondrial dynamic proteins has been implicated in several heart diseases, such as myocardial infarction (Ong et al. 2010), cardiac hypertrophy (Pennanen et al. 2014), and heart failure (Ashrafian et al. 2010).