Probiotics: A Potential Strategy for Preventing and Managing Cardiovascular Disease.

Probiotics are gaining recognition as a viable strategy for mitigating cardiovascular risk factors. Specifically, recent studies highlight their potential benefits in managing cholesterol levels, blood pressure, and inflammation, which are critical components in the prevention of cardiovascular diseases (CVD). This comprehensive review aims to elucidate the impact of probiotic consumption on major cardiovascular risk factors, including individuals with hypertension, type II diabetes mellitus, metabolic syndrome, hypercholesterolemia, and in secondary prevention in coronary artery disease.

Cardioprotection exerted by intravenous statin at index myocardial infarction event attenuates cardiac damage upon recurrent infarction.

Aims: Recurrent acute myocardial infarction (RE-AMI) is a frequent complication after STEMI, and its association with stent thrombosis can be life-threatening. Intravenous atorvastatin (IV-atorva) administration during AMI has been shown to limit infarct size and adverse cardiac remodeling. We determined by cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) whether the cardioprotection exerted by IV-atorva at the index AMI event translates into a better prognosis upon RE-AMI in dyslipidemic pigs.

Blood CD45/CD3 lymphocyte-released extracellular vesicles and mortality in hospitalized patients with coronavirus disease 2019.

Background: The global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) represented a major public health concern. Growing evidence shows that plasma of COVID-19 patients contains large numbers of circulating extracellular vesicles (cEVs) that correlate with disease severity and recovery. In this study, we sought to characterize the longitudinal cEV signature in critically ill COVID-19 patients during hospitalization and its relation to mortality risk.

Effect of Moderate Beer Intake on the Lipid Composition of Human Red Blood Cell Membranes.

: Growing evidence suggests that erythrocyte membrane lipids are subject to changes during their lifespan. Factors such as the type of dietary intake and its composition contribute to the changes in red blood cell (RBC) membranes. Due to the high antioxidant content of beer, we aimed to investigate the effect of moderate beer consumption on the lipid composition of RBCs membranes from healthy overweight individuals.

Efficacy of Food Industry By-Product β-Glucan/Chitin-Chitosan on Lipid Profile of Overweight and Obese Individuals: Sustainability and Nutraceuticals.

Fat-binding nutraceutical supplements have gained considerable attention as potential cholesterol-lowering strategies to address dyslipidemia in overweight and obese individuals. This study aimed to evaluate the effects of a polysaccharide-rich compound containing β-glucan/chitin-chitosan (βGluCnCs) on lipid profiles and lipoprotein function. In a prospective, two-arm clinical trial, 58 overweight and obese individuals were randomized to receive either 3 g/day of βGluCnCs or a placebo (microcrystalline cellulose) for 12 weeks.

CD66b/CD68 circulating extracellular vesicles, lactate dehydrogenase and neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio can differentiate coronavirus disease 2019 severity during and after infection.

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has been a major public health burden. We hypothesised that circulating extracellular vesicles (cEVs), key players in health and disease, could trace the cell changes during COVID-19 infection and recovery. Therefore, we studied the temporal trend of cEV and inflammatory marker levels in plasma samples of COVID-19 patients that were collected within 24 h of patient admission (baseline, n = 80) and after hospital discharge at day-90 post-admission (n = 59).

Development of a long noncoding RNA-based machine learning model to predict COVID-19 in-hospital mortality.

Tools for predicting COVID-19 outcomes enable personalized healthcare, potentially easing the disease burden. This collaborative study by 15 institutions across Europe aimed to develop a machine learning model for predicting the risk of in-hospital mortality post-SARS-CoV-2 infection. Blood samples and clinical data from 1286 COVID-19 patients collected from 2020 to 2023 across four cohorts in Europe and Canada were analyzed, with 2906 long non-coding RNAs profiled using targeted sequencing.

MicroRNA in cardiometabolic health and disease: The perspectives of sex, gender and personalised medicine.

Background: Personalized medicine represents a novel and integrative approach that focuses on an individual's genetics and epigenetics, precision medicine, lifestyle and exposures as key players of health status and disease phenotypes.

Methods: In this narrative review, we aim to carefully discuss the current knowledge on gender disparities in cardiometabolic diseases, and we consider the sex- specific expression of miRNAs and their role as promising tool in precision medicine.

Results: Personalised medicine overcomes the restricted care of patient based on a binomial sex approach, by enriching itself with a holistic and dynamic gender integration.

Lactiplantibacillus plantarum strains KABP011, KABP012, and KABP013 modulate bile acids and cholesterol metabolism in humans.

Aims: Probiotics with high bile salt hydrolase (BSH) activity have shown to promote cardiovascular health. However, their mechanism(s) of action remain poorly understood. Here, we performed a pilot exploratory study to investigate effects of a 4-week intervention with escalating doses of a BSH-active formula containing Lactiplantibacillus plantarum strains KABP011, KABP012, and KABP013 on bile acid (BA), lipid profile, and lipoprotein function.

C-reactive protein modifies lipoprotein(a)-related risk for coronary heart disease: the BiomarCaRE project.

Background And Aims: Recent investigations have suggested an interdependence of lipoprotein(a) [Lp(a)]-related risk for cardiovascular disease with background inflammatory burden. The aim the present analysis was to investigate whether high-sensitive C-reactive protein (hsCRP) modulates the association between Lp(a) and coronary heart disease (CHD) in the general population.

Methods: Data from 71 678 participants from 8 European prospective population-based cohort studies were used (65 661 without/6017 with established CHD at baseline; median follow-up 9.

Vascular and Platelet Effects of Tomato Soffritto Intake in Overweight and Obese Subjects.

Tomatoes are known for their numerous health benefits, including antioxidants, anti-cancer, antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, anti-neurodegenerative, antiplatelet, and cardio-protective properties. However, their potential health benefits in the Mediterranean diet's popular soffritto remain largely unexplored in scientific research. The objective was to evaluate the effects of soffritto intake on platelet activity, vascular endothelial function, weight, lipid profile, and blood parameters.

Update of HDL in atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease.

Epidemiologic evidence supported an inverse association between HDL (high-density lipoprotein) cholesterol (HDL-C) levels and atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD), identifying HDL-C as a major cardiovascular risk factor and postulating diverse HDL vascular- and cardioprotective functions beyond their ability to drive reverse cholesterol transport. However, the failure of several clinical trials aimed at increasing HDL-C in patients with overt cardiovascular disease brought into question whether increasing the cholesterol cargo of HDL was an effective strategy to enhance their protective properties. In parallel, substantial evidence supports that HDLs are complex and heterogeneous particles whose composition is essential for maintaining their protective functions, subsequently strengthening the "HDL quality over quantity" hypothesis.

Canonical Wnt pathway and the LDL receptor superfamily in neuronal cholesterol homeostasis and function.

Aims: There is little information on the regulation of cholesterol homeostasis in the brain. Whether cholesterol crosses the blood-brain barrier is under investigation, but the present understanding is that cholesterol metabolism in the brain is independent from that in peripheral tissues. Lipoprotein receptors from the LDL receptor family (LRPs) have key roles in lipid particle accumulation in cells involved in vascular and cardiac pathophysiology; however, their function on neural cells is unknown.

Bioinformatic platforms for clinical stratification of natural history of atherosclerotic cardiovascular diseases.

Although bioinformatic methods gained a lot of attention in the latest years, their use in real-world studies for primary and secondary prevention of atherosclerotic cardiovascular diseases (ASCVD) is still lacking. Bioinformatic resources have been applied to thousands of individuals from the Framingham Heart Study as well as health care-associated biobanks such as the UK Biobank, the Million Veteran Program, and the CARDIoGRAMplusC4D Consortium and randomized controlled trials (i.e.