British Heart Foundation

Smooth muscle ultrastructure – still shrouded in mystery?

Smooth muscle is fundamental to life, as its function underpins circulation, nutrition, and reproduction. However, in contrast to striated muscle, the arrangement of its contractile filaments, composed of myosin and actin, is not readily apparent by light microscopy and, even ele...

Effectiveness of Adding GLP ‐1 Receptor Agonists to SGLT2 Inhibitor Therapy in Chronic Kidney Disease: A Population Based Study

ABSTRACT Background Individually, sodium–glucose co‐transporter‐2 inhibitors (SGLT2i) and glucagon‐like peptide‐1 receptor agonists (GLP‐1RAs) have been shown to reduce major kidney and cardiovascular events in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD). However, evidence support...

Peroxiredoxin-6 protects against oxidative stress-mediated hypertrophic remodeling in JPH2-A399S knock-in mice

Background Most mutations causing hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) affect sarcomeric proteins. Mutations in junctophilin-2 (JPH2) are also implicated, but the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. An A405S variant in JPH2 was identified in a male adolescent patient with interven...

Pharmacological Inhibition of Small Extracellular Vesicle Secretion by ALK5i SD‐208 via Lysosomal Rerouting of CD63+ Compartments

ABSTRACT Pharmacological tools to selectively modulate extracellular vesicle (EV) secretion are scarce. Here, we identify the ALK5 (TGF‐β receptor I) inhibitor SD‐208 as a potent suppressor of small EV (sEV) secretion that acts independently of its canonical anti‐fibrotic activit...

Global Efficacy of Aficamten in Nonobstructive Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy: Results From ACACIA-HCM

BACKGROUND: Nonobstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (nHCM) is associated with significant morbidity with no approved treatment. Aficamten is a cardiac myosin inhibitor targeting excess contractility and diastolic impairment, the predominant mechanism responsible for adverse ou...

Cardiovascular effects of chemoradiotherapy in patients with lung cancer: an [18F]FDG PET-CT imaging study

Abstract Background Cardiovascular and pro-atherogenic side-effects of chemoradiotherapy for non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) remain a major concern given the growing burden of cancer therapy-related cardiovascular disease. Atherosclerotic plaque burden can be measured using ca...

Comprehensive benchmarking of machine learning methods for risk prediction modelling from large-scale survival data: a UK Biobank study

Predictive modelling is vital to guide the prevention of incident disease (e.g., risk-based initiation of preventive pharmacotherapies). Whilst large-scale prospective cohort studies and a diverse toolkit of available machine learning (ML) algorithms have facilitated such surviva...

FHL3 Regulates Vascular Smooth Muscle Cell Phenotypic Switching Through the MRTFB-SRF Signaling Axis

Genome-wide association studies have uncovered many coronary artery disease (CAD) loci, but mechanisms linking risk variants to vascular biology remain unclear. We screen candidate causal CAD genes for regulators of the vascular smooth muscle cell (VSMC) contractile phenotype usi...

Translational evidence for the antihypertensive potential of Passiflora edulis: a systematic review of preclinical and clinical studies

Abstract Introduction Passiflora edulis (PE) (passion fruit) is traditionally valued for its cardiovascular and calming properties, but its antihypertensive and blood pressure (BP)-lowering potential has not been systematically evaluated. Emerging evidence from preclinical and cl...