The innate immune system in chronic cardiomyopathy : a European Society of Cardiology (ESC) scientific statement from the Working Group on Myocardial Function of the ESC

Funded by Regione Campania CISI-Lab European Union Commission's Seventh Framework . Grant Number: 305507, 602904 FP7-Health-2013-Innovations-1. Grant Number: 602156 FWO Flanders, Belgium. Grant Number: FWO G080014 N European Union Horizon2020. Grant Number: UE LSHM-CT-05-018833, FNRS PDR T.0144.13 Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung. Grant Number: BMBF01 EO1004 Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft. Grant Number: SFB688 TP A10Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Cardiac dysfunction in cancer patients : beyond direct cardiomyocyte damage of anticancer drugs. Novel cardio-oncology insights from the joint 2019 meeting of the ESC Working Groups of Myocardial Function and Cellular Biology of the Heart

Published on behalf of the European Society of Cardiology. All rights reserved. © The Author(s) 2020. For permissions please email: [email protected] reviewedPostprin

Non-Coding RNAs as Blood-Based Biomarkers in Cardiovascular Disease

In 2020, cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) remain a leading cause of mortality and morbidity, contributing to the burden of the already overloaded health system. Late or incorrect diagnosis of patients with CVDs compromises treatment efficiency and patient's outcome. Diagnosis of CVDs could be facilitated by detection of blood-based biomarkers that reliably reflect the current condition of the heart. In the last decade, non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) present on human biofluids including serum, plasma, and blood have been reported as potential biomarkers for CVDs. This paper reviews recent studies that focus on the use of ncRNAs as biomarkers of CVDs.</p

A directed network analysis of the cardiome identifies molecular pathways contributing to the development of HFpEF

Aims: The metabolic syndrome and associated comorbidities, like diabetes, hypertension and obesity, have been implicated in the development of heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF). The molecular mechanisms underlying the development of HFpEF remain to be elucidated. We developed a cardiome-directed network analysis and applied this to high throughput cardiac RNA-sequencing data from a well-established rat model of HFpEF, the obese and hypertensive ZSF1 rat. With this novel system biology approach, we explored the mechanisms underlying HFpEF.Methods and results: Unlike ZSF1-Lean, ZSF1-Obese and ZSF1-Obese rats fed with a high-fat diet (HFD) developed diastolic dysfunction and reduced exercise capacity. The number of differentially expressed genes amounted to 1591 and 1961 for the ZSF1-Obese vs. Lean and ZSF1-Obese+HFD vs. Lean comparison, respectively. For the cardiome-directed network analysis (CDNA) eleven biological processes related to cardiac disease were selected and used as input for the STRING protein-protein interaction database. The resulting STRING network comprised 3.460 genes and 186.653 edges. Subsequently differentially expressed genes were projected onto this network. The connectivity between the core processes within the network was assessed and important bottleneck and hub genes were identified based on their network topology.Classical gene enrichment analysis highlighted many processes related to mitochondrial oxidative metabolism. The CDNA indicated high interconnectivity between five core processes: endothelial function, inflammation, apoptosis/autophagy, sarcomere/cytoskeleton and extracellular matrix. The transcription factors Myc and Peroxisome Proliferator-Activated Receptor-alpha (Ppara) were identified as important bottlenecks in the overall network topology, with Ppara acting as important link between cardiac metabolism, inflammation and endothelial function.Conclusions: This study presents a novel systems biology approach, directly applicable to other cardiac disease related transcriptome data sets. The CDNA approach enabled the identification of critical processes and genes, including Myc and Ppara, that are putatively involved in the development of HFpEF.</p

Association of body mass index and visceral fat with aortic valve calcification and mortality after transcatheter aortic valve replacement: the obesity paradox in severe aortic stenosis

Abstract Background Previous studies showed that metabolic syndrome is associated with aortic valve calcification (AVC) and poor outcomes in aortic stenosis (AS). However, if these associations change and how body fat impacts the prognosis of patients in late stage of the disease have been not yet explored. Aims To determine the association of body mass index (BMI) and visceral fat with AVC and mortality after transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR). Methods This was a prospective cohort of 170 severe AS patients referred to TAVR. We quantified AVC mass score and fat depots including epicardial adipose tissue, intrathoracic fat, and abdominal visceral (VAF) and subcutaneous fats by computed tomography. Fat depots were indexed to body surface area. All-cause and cardiovascular-related deaths after TAVR were recorded over a median follow-up of 1.2 years. Results Higher AVC mass was independently associated with low BMI and low VAF. All-cause mortality risk increased with the decrease of BMI and increment of VAF. A stratified analysis by obesity showed that in non-obese, VAF was inversely associated with mortality, whereas in obese, high VAF was associated with higher mortality (p value for interaction < 0.05). At long-term, hazard ratio [HR] with non-obese/low VAF was 2.3 (95% confidence interval [CI] 1.1–4.9; p = 0.021) and HR with obese/high VAF was 2.5 (95% CI 1.1–5.8; p = 0.031) compared with obese/low VAF patients. Conclusions In AS patients submitted to TAVR, BMI and VAF were inversely associated with AVC. Pre-intervention assessment of VAF by computed tomography may provide a better discrimination of mortality than BMI alone

Enhanced Cardiomyocyte Function in Hypertensive Rats With Diastolic Dysfunction and Human Heart Failure Patients After Acute Treatment With Soluble Guanylyl Cyclase (sGC) Activator

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