Case report: heart failure related to intravitreal injection of anti-VEGF.

Background: Intravitreal injection of anti-vascular endothelial growth factor is considered the first-line treatment for polypoidal choroidal vasculopathy. It has potential risks for circulatory system, which should be particularly carefully evaluated in older patients. In this case study, we aim to discuss the potential impact of this treatment regimen on cardiac health.

NKRF in Cardiac Fibroblasts Protects against Cardiac Remodeling Post-Myocardial Infarction via Human Antigen R.

Myocardial infarction (MI) remains the leading cause of death worldwide. Cardiac fibroblasts (CFs) are abundant in the heart and are responsible for cardiac repair post-MI. NF-κB-repressing factor (NKRF) plays a significant role in the transcriptional inhibition of various specific genes.

Role of hsa_circ_0000280 in regulating vascular smooth muscle cell function and attenuating neointimal hyperplasia via ELAVL1.

The pathological proliferation of cells in vascular smooth muscle underlies neointimal hyperplasia (NIH) development during atherosclerosis. Circular RNAs (circRNAs), which represent novel functional biomarkers and RNA-binding proteins, contribute to multiple cardiovascular diseases; however, their roles in regulating the vascular smooth muscle cell cycle remain unknown. Thus, we aimed to identify the roles of circRNAs in vascular smooth muscle during coronary heart disease (CHD).

An intersegmental single-cell profile reveals aortic heterogeneity and identifies a novel Malat1 vascular smooth muscle subtype involved in abdominal aortic aneurysm formation.

The developmental origin, anatomical location, and other factors contribute to aortic heterogeneity in a physiological state. On this basis, vascular diseases occur at different ratios based on position specificity, even with the same risk factor. However, the continuous intersegmental aortic profile has been rarely reported at the single-cell level.

Deficient Chaperone-Mediated Autophagy Promotes Inflammation and Atherosclerosis.

Rationale: The NLRP3 (NLR [NOD-like receptor] family, pyrin domain containing 3) inflammasome is an important driver of atherosclerosis. Our previous study shows that chaperone-mediated autophagy (CMA), one of the main lysosomal degradative process, has a regulatory role in lipid metabolism of macrophages. However, whether the NLRP3 inflammasome is regulated by CMA, and the role of CMA in atherosclerosis remains unclear.

Single-cell RNA sequencing analysis to characterize cells and gene expression landscapes in atrial septal defect.

This study aimed to characterize the cells and gene expression landscape in atrial septal defect (ASD). We performed single-cell RNA sequencing of cells derived from cardiac tissue of an ASD patient. Unsupervised clustering analysis was performed to identify different cell populations, followed by the investigation of the cellular crosstalk by analysing ligand-receptor interactions across cell types.

Hsa_circ_0030042 regulates abnormal autophagy and protects atherosclerotic plaque stability by targeting eIF4A3.

Abnormal autophagic death of endothelial cells is detrimental to plaque structure as endothelial loss promotes lesional thrombosis. As emerging functional biomarkers, circular RNAs (circRNAs) are involved in various diseases, including cardiovascular. This study is aimed to determine the role of hsa_circ_0030042 in abnormal endothelial cell autophagy and plaque stability.

Circular RNA expression profiles and bioinformatic analysis in coronary heart disease.

We aimed to identify the expression profile and role of circular RNAs (circRNAs) in coronary heart disease (CHD). We performed sequence analysis of circRNAs in peripheral blood mononuclear cells of 70 CHD patients and 30 controls. Eight selected circRNAs were validated using quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) in human atherosclerotic coronary arteries.

Attenuation of the hypoxia-induced miR-34a protects cardiomyocytes through maintenance of glucose metabolism.

Ischemic injury in the heart is associated with death of cardiomyocytes and even after decades of research there is no appropriate therapeutic intervention to treat ischemic injury. The microRNA miR-34a is known to be induced in cardiomyocytes following ischemic injury. Another hallmark of ischemic injury is impaired glycolysis.

Tofacitinib ameliorates atherosclerosis and reduces foam cell formation in apoE deficient mice.

Atherosclerosis is a chronic inflammatory cardiovascular disease with high mortality worldwide. Tofacitinib (CP-690,550), an oral small-molecule Janus kinase inhibitor, has been shown to be effective in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis, autoimmune encephalomyelitis and ulcerative colitis. However, its protective effect against atherosclerosis remains poorly understood.

miR-34a is a common link in both HIV- and antiretroviral therapy-induced vascular aging.

Both HIV and antiretroviral therapy could induce vascular aging with unclear mechanisms. In this study, via microarray analysis, we identified, for the first time, that miR-34a expression was significantly increased in both HIV-infected, and antiretroviral agents-treated vessels and vascular endothelial cells (ECs) from these vessels. In cultured ECs, miR-34a expression was significantly increased by HIV-Tat protein and by the antiretroviral agents, lopinavir/ritonavir.

Patchouli alcohol attenuates experimental atherosclerosis via inhibiting macrophage infiltration and its inflammatory responses.

Patchouli alcohol (PA) is a tricyclic sesquiterpene extracted from a traditional Chinese herb pogostemonis herba. Literatures have proven that PA could inhibit inflammatory responses in various inflammatory disease models. However, whether PA could protect against atherosclerosis, a chronic vascular inflammation, is unknown.

A Natural Model of Mouse Cardiac Myocyte Senescence.

Many cardiac aging studies are performed on mice first and then, due to difficulty in mouse cardiomyocyte culture, applied the rat neonatal cardiomyocytes to further determine the mechanisms in vitro. Now, the technological challenge of mouse cardiomyocyte culture has been overcome and there is an increasing need for the senescence models of mouse cardiomyocytes. In this study, we have demonstrated that the senescence of mouse cardiomyocytes occurred with the extended culture time as shown by the increased β-galactosidase staining, increased p53 expression, decreased telomere activity, shorted telomere length, increased production of ROS, increased cell apoptosis, and impaired mitochondrial ΔΨm.

Expression of calcitonin gene-related peptide type 1 receptor mRNA and their activity-modifying proteins in the rat nucleus accumbens.

The calcitonin receptor-like receptor (CRLR) and the orphan receptor RDC-1 have been proposed to be calcitonin gene-related peptide type 1 (CGRP1) receptors, and receptor activity-modifying proteins (RAMPs) determine the ligand specificity of CRLR. Coexpression of RAMP1 and CRLR resulted in functional CGRP1 receptors; the complex of RAMP2 or RAMP3 and CRLR created functional adrenomedullin receptor. Although high levels of CGRP binding sites in the nucleus accumbens have been reported, little is known about the expression of these novel CGRP receptors.