News & Comment

In this Tools of the Trade article, Olivera describes a rat model of pre-elampsia that has been instrumental for investigating potential long-term cardiovascular effects in offspring.

A new approach to modify the epigenome can lead to durable silencing of Pcsk9 in mice, thereby reducing plasma LDL-cholesterol levels, according to a study published in Nature.

Shoaran and Maffia recount how our understanding of the role of inflammation in atherosclerosis has evolved and highlight the study by Göran Hansson and colleagues that provided the first hint of the involvement of the adaptive immune response in atherosclerosis.

Rebecca Gilchrist discusses the study that demonstrated the long-term modulation of ventricular repolarization by the sequence of electrical activation in the human heart and established the concept of cardiac memory.

A metabolic product of excess niacin promotes vascular inflammation in preclinical models and is associated with increased rates of major adverse cardiovascular events in humans.

Atrial fibrillation is the most common sustained arrhythmia and imposes a substantial burden on patients and health-care providers. Clinical evidence suggests that antiarrhythmic therapy to restore and maintain sinus rhythm (rhythm control) can reduce adverse cardiovascular outcomes in patients with new-onset atrial fibrillation. As a result, a paradigm shift towards rhythm control over rate control therapy is emerging, increasing the clinical need for effective and safe antiarrhythmic drugs.

Using a porcine model of cardiogenic shock, Lamberti and colleagues develop a clinically accessible, patient-validated metric to assess pulmonary vascular compliance that can predict tolerance to left-sided ventricular assist device support.

Heartbeat-induced pressure pulsations within arterial vessels in the brain can directly stimulate central neuronal activity by activating mechanosensitive channels in subsets of neurons, according to a study published in Science.

Two studies indicate that a reduction in body mass index as a result of either bariatric surgery or pharmacological therapy is associated with a blood pressure-lowering effect.

A study shows that congenital heart defects in Down syndrome are in part caused by increased dosage of the DYRK1A gene, which lies on chromosome 21, leading to reduced proliferation and mitochondrial dysfunction in cardiomyocytes.

In this Comment, we critically examine the association between the increasing consumption of ultra-processed foods and their negative effect on cardiovascular health. We explore the historical evolution of food processing, the Nova food classification and the epidemiological evidence, and highlight the need for urgent public health interventions.

A molecular autopsy is undertaken in cases of sudden cardiac death with no definitive cause found after conventional autopsy, with the aim of identifying a pathological genetic variant that could account for the death. Greater awareness of malignant arrhythmias in the absence of structural changes in inherited cardiomyopathies has increased the applicability of molecular autopsies, and resulted in improved care of families but new challenges for clinicians.

Heart valve replacement in newborn babies remains an unsolved problem because currently used heart valve implants do not grow. This lack of implant growth mandates serial re-operations until adult-size valve implants can be fitted. Partial heart transplantation is a new approach to solve this problem by transplanting only the part of the heart that contains the necessary valve.

Anti-inflammatory therapy involving IL-1β inhibition might reduce the risk of cardiovascular events in individuals with clonal haematopoiesis by increasing the number of fibroblast-like cells in the fibrous cap region of atherosclerotic plaques, thereby stabilizing the plaque and reducing the likelihood of rupture.

During myocardial infarction, haematopoietic stem and progenitor cells increase fatty acid oxidation, and bone marrow adipocytes can act as a local energy resource for these cells.

Left atrial appendage occlusion (LAAO) has been rapidly adopted for stroke prevention in patients with non-valvular atrial fibrillation and a contraindication to oral anticoagulation. Ongoing and planned clinical trials on LAAO and the development of new devices might expand clinical indications and address the remaining challenges of device-related thrombus and peridevice leak.

A method named photoacoustic vector tomography now enables the quantification of haemodynamics in veins at depths of more than 5 mm below the skin surface, outperforming current pure optical modalities for deep haemodynamic imaging.

In aged mice, but not young mice, with atherosclerosis, depletion of CD8⁺ T cells significantly reduces atherosclerotic lesion size and necrotic core area.