Background: The heart is commonly involved in maternally inherited mitochondrial myopathy, encephalopathy, lactic acidosis, and stroke-like episodes (MELAS) syndrome caused by the MT-TL1 m.3243A>G mutation of the mitochondrial DNA. Heart transplantation (HTx) is controversial and has rarely been performed with conflicting results.
Objectives: We analyzed factors preventing HTx in consecutive adult patients with MELAS cardiomyopathy diagnosed and followed during the last 23 years in our HTx referral center.
Methods: The series consists of 14 unrelated adult probands who were referred for evaluation of cardiomyopathy from 1998 to 2021. None had a suspected diagnosis of MELAS before referral. All patients underwent clinical and genetic visit and counseling, mitochondrial DNA sequencing, cardiovascular investigation (including right heart catheterization and endomyocardial biopsy in 10), multidisciplinary assessment, and biochemical tests. Family screening identified 2 affected relatives.
Results: The cardiac phenotype was characterized by hypertrophic, concentric, nonobstructive cardiomyopathy that often evolved into a dilated cardiomyopathy-like phenotype. Of the 14 probands, 7 were potential candidates for HTx, 2 for heart and kidney Tx, and 1 was on the active HTx list for 3 years. None of the 10 probands underwent HTx. One is currently being evaluated for HTx. All had diabetes, hearing loss, and myopathy, and 10 had chronic kidney disease and progressive encephalomyopathy. During follow-up, 10 died from heart failure associated with multiorgan failure within 5 years of the genetic diagnosis.
Conclusions: High risk of stroke-like episodes, chronic kidney disease, and wasting myopathy in MELAS patients prevents activation of plans for HTx. As a result, the management of their cardiomyopathy in this syndromic context remains an unmet clinical need.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jacc.2022.04.067 | DOI Listing |
Sci Immunol
January 2025
Laboratory of Clinical Immunology and Microbiology, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA.
Human recombination-activating gene (RAG) deficiency can manifest with distinct clinical and immunological phenotypes. By applying a multiomics approach to a large group of -mutated patients, we aimed at characterizing the immunopathology associated with each phenotype. Although defective T and B cell development is common to all phenotypes, patients with hypomorphic variants can generate T and B cells with signatures of immune dysregulation and produce autoantibodies to a broad range of self-antigens, including type I interferons.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTransplantation
January 2025
Department of Surgery, Center for Transplantation Sciences, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA.
Background: Long-term renal allograft acceptance has been achieved in macaques using a transient mixed hematopoetic chimerism protocol, but similar regimens have proven unsuccessful in heart allograft recipients unless a kidney transplant was performed simultaneously. Here, we test whether a modified protocol based on targeting CD154, CD2, and CD28 is sufficient to prolong heart allograft acceptance or promote the expansion of regulatory T cells.
Methods: Eight macaques underwent heterotopic allo-heart transplantation from major histocompatibility complex-mismatched donors.
Nucl Med Commun
January 2025
Division of Cardiology, Onishi Hospital, Fujioka, Japan.
Objective: Patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) have an increased risk of adverse cardio-cerebrovascular events. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the prognostic predictors over 5 years in patients with CKD including haemodialysis.
Methods: In this multicenter, prospective cohort study performed with the Gunma-CKD SPECT Study protocol, 311 patients with CKD [estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) < 60 min/ml/1.
J Hypertens
December 2024
Division of Nephrology, Department of Medicine, Samsung Medical Center, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine.
Objectives: Patients with advanced chronic kidney disease suffer from hypertension, and kidney transplantation (KT) has potential to induce hypertension resolution. We hypothesized that hypertension resolution after KT is associated with better KT outcomes.
Methods: We identified KT recipients (2006-2015) who had pretransplant hypertension.
Innov Aging
December 2024
William F. Connell School of Nursing, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, USA.
Background And Objectives: Despite the significant impact of heart failure on both members of the care dyad, few interventions focus on optimizing the health of the dyad. The current study examined the feasibility and acceptability of the novel Taking Care of Us (TCU) program with mid-late-life couples living with heart failure and explored preliminary efficacy.
Research Design And Methods: This NIH Stage I study used a 2-arm randomized controlled trial with pretest-post-test design and an additional 5-month follow-up to compare TCU with an educational counseling attention-control condition.
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