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Recent Advances in Molecular Pathophysiology of Cardiovascular Diseases: 2nd Edition

A special issue of International Journal of Molecular Sciences (ISSN 1422-0067). This special issue belongs to the section "Molecular Pathology, Diagnostics, and Therapeutics".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 20 April 2025 | Viewed by 4745

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Guest Editor
Department of Internal Medicine, Victor Babes University of Medicine and Pharmacy of Timisoara, Timisoara, Romania
Interests: cardiology; coronary artery disease; heart failure; arrhythmias; imaging; echocardiography
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Molecular cardiology is a new and fast-growing area of cardiovascular medicine that aims to apply molecular biology techniques for the mechanistic investigation, diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of cardiovascular disease.

As an emerging discipline, it has changed our conceptual thinking of cardiovascular development, disease etiology and pathophysiology. Although molecular cardiology is still at a very early stage, it constitutes a promising avenue for understanding and controlling cardiovascular disease.

The Special Issue will address the recent advances in the molecular pathophysiology of cardiovascular disease, including gene analysis in injured and hypertrophied hearts; transgenic techniques in cardiac research; gene transfer and gene therapy for cardiovascular disease; and stem cell therapy for cardiovascular disease.

It would be an honor to publish your article in the upcoming Special Issue of our journal. Therefore, we request you consider submitting a manuscript. This Special Issue is supervised by Prof. Dr. Mirela Cleopatra Tomescu and assisted by our Topical Advisory Panel Member, Dr. Sourav Ghorai (University of Illinois at Chicago).

Prof. Dr. Mirela Cleopatra Tomescu
Guest Editor

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Keywords

  • DNA
  • genes
  • heart diseases
  • hypertrophy
  • molecular biology
  • myocardial infarction

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Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

18 pages, 2429 KiB  
Article
Integrative Analyses of Circulating Proteins and Metabolites Reveal Sex Differences in the Associations with Cardiac Function among DCM Patients
by Anke Hannemann, Sabine Ameling, Kristin Lehnert, Marcus Dörr, Stephan B. Felix, Matthias Nauck, Muna N. Al-Noubi, Frank Schmidt, Jan Haas, Benjamin Meder, Uwe Völker, Nele Friedrich and Elke Hammer
Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2024, 25(13), 6827; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms25136827 - 21 Jun 2024
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Abstract
Dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) is characterized by reduced left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) and left or biventricular dilatation. We evaluated sex-specific associations of circulating proteins and metabolites with structural and functional heart parameters in DCM. Plasma samples (297 men, 71 women) were analyzed for [...] Read more.
Dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) is characterized by reduced left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) and left or biventricular dilatation. We evaluated sex-specific associations of circulating proteins and metabolites with structural and functional heart parameters in DCM. Plasma samples (297 men, 71 women) were analyzed for proteins using Olink assays (targeted analysis) or LC-MS/MS (untargeted analysis), and for metabolites using LC MS/MS (Biocrates AbsoluteIDQ p180 Kit). Associations of proteins (n = 571) or metabolites (n = 163) with LVEF, measured left ventricular end diastolic diameter (LVEDDmeasured), and the dilation percentage of LVEDD from the norm (LVEDDacc. to HENRY) were examined in combined and sex-specific regression models. To disclose protein–metabolite relations, correlation analyses were performed. Associations between proteins, metabolites and LVEF were restricted to men, while associations with LVEDD were absent in both sexes. Significant metabolites were validated in a second independent DCM cohort (93 men). Integrative analyses demonstrated close relations between altered proteins and metabolites involved in lipid metabolism, inflammation, and endothelial dysfunction with declining LVEF, with kynurenine as the most prominent finding. In DCM, the loss of cardiac function was reflected by circulating proteins and metabolites with sex-specific differences. Our integrative approach demonstrated that concurrently assessing specific proteins and metabolites might help us to gain insights into the alterations associated with DCM. Full article
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11 pages, 4201 KiB  
Article
Identification and Functional Verification of CITED2 Gene Promoter Region in Patients with Patent Ductus Arteriosus
by Zhuo Chen, Huan-Xin Chen, Hai-Tao Hou, Xiu-Yun Yin, Qin Yang and Guo-Wei He
Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2023, 24(22), 16204; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms242216204 - 11 Nov 2023
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1180
Abstract
Patent ductus arteriosus (PDA) is a common congenital heart disease. CITED2 plays an important role in the development of the heart, and genetic variants in its coding region are significantly associated with cardiac malformations. However, the role of variants in the promoter region [...] Read more.
Patent ductus arteriosus (PDA) is a common congenital heart disease. CITED2 plays an important role in the development of the heart, and genetic variants in its coding region are significantly associated with cardiac malformations. However, the role of variants in the promoter region of CITED2 in the development of PDA remains unclear. We extracted the peripheral blood of 646 subjects (including 353 PDA patients and 293 unrelated healthy controls) for sequencing. We identified 13 promoter variants of the CITED2 gene (including 2 novel heterozygous variants). Of the 13 variants, 10 were found only in PDA patients. In mouse cardiomyocytes (HL-1) and rat cardiac myocytes (RCM), the transcriptional activity of the CITED2 gene promoter was significantly changed by the variants (p < 0.05). The results of the experiments of electrophoretic mobility indicated that these variants may affect the transcription of the CITED2 gene by influencing the binding ability of transcription factors. These results, combined with the JASPAR database analysis, showed that the destruction/production of transcription factor binding sites due to the variants in the promoter region of the CITED2 gene may directly or indirectly affect the binding ability of transcription factors. Our results suggest for the first time that variants at the CITED2 promoter region may cause low expression of CITED2 protein related to the formation of PDA. Full article
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17 pages, 4371 KiB  
Article
Novel Targets Regulating the Role of Endothelial Cells and Angiogenesis after Infarction: A RNA Sequencing Analysis
by María Ortega, Tamara Molina-García, Jose Gavara, Elena de Dios, Nerea Pérez-Solé, Victor Marcos-Garcés, Francisco J. Chorro, Cesar Rios-Navarro, Amparo Ruiz-Sauri and Vicente Bodi
Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2023, 24(21), 15698; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms242115698 - 28 Oct 2023
Viewed by 1352
Abstract
Endothelial cells (ECs) are a key target for cardioprotection due to their role in preserving cardiac microvasculature and homeostasis after myocardial infarction (MI). Our goal is to identify the genes involved in post-MI EC proliferation, EC apoptosis, and angiogenesis regulation via RNA-sequencing transcriptomic [...] Read more.
Endothelial cells (ECs) are a key target for cardioprotection due to their role in preserving cardiac microvasculature and homeostasis after myocardial infarction (MI). Our goal is to identify the genes involved in post-MI EC proliferation, EC apoptosis, and angiogenesis regulation via RNA-sequencing transcriptomic datasets. Using eight studies from the Gene Expression Omnibus, RNA-sequencing data from 92 mice submitted to different times of coronary ischemia or sham were chosen. Functional enrichment analysis was performed based on gene ontology biological processes (BPs). Apoptosis-related BPs are activated up to day 3 after ischemia onset, whereas endothelial proliferation occurs from day 3 onwards, including an overrepresentation of up to 37 genes. Endothelial apoptosis post-MI is triggered via both the extrinsic and intrinsic signaling pathways, as reflected by the overrepresentation of 13 and 2 specific genes, respectively. BPs implicated in new vessel formation are upregulated soon after ischemia onset, whilst the mechanisms aiming at angiogenesis repression can be detected at day 3. Overall, 51 pro-angiogenic and 29 anti-angiogenic factors displayed altered transcriptomic expression post-MI. This is the first study using RNA sequencing datasets to evaluate the genes participating in post-MI endothelium physiology and angiogenesis regulation. These novel data could lay the groundwork to advance understanding of the implication of ECs after MI. Full article
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