Publications by authors named "el-Khoury W"

Vascular inflammation regulates endothelial pathophenotypes, particularly in pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH). Dysregulated lysosomal activity and cholesterol metabolism activate pathogenic inflammation, but their relevance to PAH is unclear. Nuclear receptor coactivator 7 () deficiency in endothelium produced an oxysterol and bile acid signature through lysosomal dysregulation, promoting endothelial pathophenotypes.

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Article Synopsis
  • Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is a disease caused by inflammation and dysfunction in blood vessel cells, leading to changes in the lungs' blood vessels.
  • The study highlights the role of the protein IFI16 in promoting inflammation in these endothelial cells, especially when triggered by the inflammatory molecule IL-1b.
  • Additionally, the research suggests that changes in m6A modification of IFI16 may serve as a potential biomarker for identifying PAH in patients, as increased m6A levels were found in their blood cells compared to healthy controls.
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Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is a progressive disease driven by endothelial cell inflammation and dysfunction, resulting in the pathological remodeling of the pulmonary vasculature. Innate immune activation has been linked to PAH development; however, the regulation, propagation, and reversibility of the induction of inflammation in PAH is poorly understood. Here, we demonstrate a role for interferon inducible protein 16 (IFI16), an innate immune sensor, as a modulator of endothelial inflammation in pulmonary hypertension, utilizing human pulmonary artery endothelial cells (PAECs).

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  • Vascular inflammation plays a key role in regulating the behavior of endothelial cells, which is especially significant in pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH), showing complex connections to lysosomal activity and cholesterol metabolism.
  • Research identified that the nuclear receptor coactivator 7 (NCOA7) helps maintain lysosomal function and limits inflammation in endothelial cells; when NCOA7 is deficient, it leads to inflammation and worsened PAH symptoms.
  • A genetic variant in NCOA7 was linked to PAH severity and mortality, while a computationally designed drug that activates NCOA7 showed potential in reversing PAH symptoms in mice, highlighting a new therapeutic approach.
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  • The study explores how hypoxia affects blood vessel behavior in pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) through a genetic and epigenetic mechanism involving HIF-2α.
  • HIF-2α enhances the expression of certain genes and long noncoding RNAs that contribute to increased vascular dysfunction, creating a feedback loop that further boosts HIF-2α activity.
  • A specific genetic variant (rs73184087) is linked to an increased risk of PAH; interventions that either inhibit this pathway or reduce HIF-2α levels showed protective effects against the disease in animal models.
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Background: Left heart disease is the most common cause of pulmonary hypertension (PH) and is frequently accompanied by increases in pulmonary vascular resistance. However, the distinction between phenotypes of PH due to left heart disease with a normal or elevated pulmonary vascular resistance-isolated postcapillary PH (IpcPH) and combined pre- and postcapillary PH (CpcPH), respectively-has been incompletely defined using unbiased methods.

Methods And Results: Patients with extremes of IpcPH versus CpcPH were identified from a single-center record of those who underwent right heart catheterization.

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Deficiency of iron‑sulfur (FeS) clusters promotes metabolic rewiring of the endothelium and the development of pulmonary hypertension (PH) in vivo. Joining a growing number of FeS biogenesis proteins critical to pulmonary endothelial function, recent data highlighted that frataxin (FXN) reduction drives Fe-S-dependent genotoxic stress and senescence across multiple types of pulmonary vascular disease. Trinucleotide repeat mutations in the FXN gene cause Friedreich's ataxia, a disease characterized by cardiomyopathy and neurodegeneration.

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Background Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is a complex, fatal disease where disease severity has been associated with the single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) rs2856830, located near the human leukocyte antigen DPA1 (HLA-DPA1) gene. We aimed to define the genetic architecture of functional variants associated with PAH disease severity by identifying allele-specific binding transcription factors and downstream targets that control endothelial pathophenotypes and PAH. Methods and Results Electrophoretic mobility shift assays of oligonucleotides containing SNP rs2856830 and 8 SNPs in linkage disequilibrium revealed functional SNPs via allele-imbalanced binding to human pulmonary arterial endothelial cell nuclear proteins.

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Surgical quality and safety in radiofrequency catheter ablation (RFA) are critical in arrhythmia procedures. Steam pops, in particular, are potentially catastrophic events that must be avoided; otherwise, they may cause significant damage to the myocardium. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of applied RFA inclination angle and tissue contact parameters on the ablated volume and "steam pop" formation.

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The ribosome, the site for protein synthesis, is composed of ribosomal RNAs (rRNAs) and ribosomal proteins (RPs). The latter have been shown to have many ribosomal and extraribosomal functions. RPs are implicated in a variety of pathological processes, especially tumorigenesis and cell transformation.

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Bakery products are an important part of a balanced diet and, today, a wide variety of such products can be found on supermarket shelves. This includes unsweetened goods (bread, rolls, buns, crumpets, muffins and bagels), sweet goods (pancakes, doughnuts, waffles and cookies) and filled goods (fruit and meat pies, sausage rolls, pastries, sandwiches, cream cakes, pizza and quiche). However, bakery products, like many processed foods, are subject to physical, chemical and microbiological spoilage.

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A retrospective review of 56 patients operated upon for tumours of Oddi was performed in order to determine optimal diagnostic and therapeutic procedures. Common presenting symptoms were jaundice (86%) and anemia (21%). Mean size of the tumour was 2.

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The records of 56 patients operated upon for ampullary tumors were reviewed in order to determine the best way to diagnose and treat these tumors. Thirty six males and 20 females, 30 to 89 years old, were operated upon between October 1970 and October 1985. Eighty six p.

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