There is a strong relationship between heart failure (HF) and atrial fibrillation (AF): half of the patients with HF acquire AF. Recent studies discovered a genetic basis underlying AF, which demonstrated a strong heritable component to this disease.
Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH), characterized by vasoconstriction and pulmonary vascular remodeling, has a 10% annual mortality rate among patients due to right heart failure. There are genetic variants known to impact the risk of PAH, but susceptibility from epigenetic changes is poorly understood.
Atherosclerosis occurs in arterial regions with disturbed blood flow, where endothelial cells are exposed to stress, thus activating proatherogenic signals that promote endothelial dysfunction and reprogramming, among others. Researchers have identified heart development protein with EGF like domains 1 (HEG1) as a flow-sensitive gene in murine artery endothelial cells.
Innovent Biologics Inc. and Sanegene Bio USA Inc. (Sanegenebio) have announced they have entered into a collaboration agreement to co-develop SGB-3908, an siRNA drug candidate targeting angiotensinogen (AGT) for the treatment of hypertension.
To date, no cardiovascular model has been able to shed light on how and why cardiac congenital disorders start in the human embryo. Researchers from the Institute of Molecular Biotechnology (IMBA) in Vienna have been able to recapitulate cardiogenesis in multi-chamber cardioids, sort of interacting heart chambers intended to dissect how genetic and environmental factors impact human heart development.
A Genentech Inc. patent discloses new benzothiazole compounds acting as von Hippel-Lindau disease tumor suppressor (VHL) inhibitors and reported to be useful for the treatment of ischemia, cancer and anemia.
Based on previous studies that have demonstrated the potential of growth hormone-releasing hormone receptor (GHRH-R) antagonists to modulate immune responses to bleomycin lung injury, researchers from the University of Miami and affiliated organizations aimed to evaluate the potential of the GHRH-R antagonist MIA-602 in a mouse model of rVSV-SARS-CoV-2-induced pulmonary dysfunction and heart injury.
4-Hydroxynonenal (4-HNE) is a major byproduct of lipid peroxidation, a process exacerbated by mitochondrial dysfunction and oxidative stress. Accumulation of 4-HNE protein adducts has been reported in several cardiovascular diseases, such as myocardial infarction, hypertension and heart failure in both rodents and humans. Therefore, identifying critical 4-HNE targets relevant to cardiac pathophysiology could help develop better therapies to treat heart failure.
Brise Pharmaceutical (Shanghai) Co. Ltd. has divulged calcitonin gene-related peptide receptor (CALCRL; CGRPR) antagonists reported to be useful for treatment of cerebrovascular and vascular disorders.
Eli Lilly and Co. shared insights into an inhibitor targeting ANGPTL3, named solbinsiran. Solbinsiran, a N-acetylgalactosamine (GalNAc) conjugated Dicer-substrate small interfering RNA (DsiRNA), is designed to target ANGPTL3 expression in the liver.