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Cancer Labs at School of Medicine @ Technion: Janet and David Polak Cancer and Vascular Biology Research Center

Cancer Labs at School of Medicine @ Technion

Reporter: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

Article ID #139: Cancer Labs at School of Medicine @ Technion: Janet and David Polak Cancer and Vascular Biology Research Center. Published on 5/28/2014

WordCloud Image Produced by Adam Tubman

Janet and David Polak Cancer and Vascular Biology Research CenterThe Rappaport Faculty of Medicine Research Institute and Faculty of Medicine, Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel

The center was established in 2003 to promote an in-depth interdisciplinary basic and clinical research on the control of cellular and molecular processes that are involved in cancer initiation and progression. We strongly believe that the understanding of basic biological processes that underlie normal development and their deregulation in cancer, is crucial for our ability to identify molecular targets for early detection, intervention, and cure of the disease. We are interested in a broad view of cancer – from the single malignantly transformed cell and its microenvironment, through the entire tumor in the animal. We focus on targeted ubiquitin-mediated degradation of key regulatory proteins that are involved in malignant transformation [Prof. Aaron Ciechanover (Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2004)], angiogenesis and cancer progression (Prof. Gera Neufeld), metastasis and tumor microenvironment (Prof. Israel Vlodavsky), as well as genetic and genomic dissection of embryonic and cancer transcriptional networks (Dr. Amir Orian). Towards these objectives, we combine molecular, biochemical, cell biological with Drosophila genetic and genomics experimental approaches, as well as employing advanced models of angiogenesis and metastasis.

We believe that scientific excellence and collegiality go together. Therefore, the center has an open and friendly atmosphere, creating a highly stimulating environment. The center is located in the 11th Floor of the Rappaport Faculty of Medicine building. It currently trains 45 graduate students, post-doctoral fellows, clinicians and researchers that are at the heart of our research. Formal and informal collaborations between individuals and laboratories are on-going and encouraged. We are running a series of joint seminars to which we invite researchers from Israel and abroad. The Center has advanced state-of-the-art microscopic and image analysis equipment, as well as other shared pieces of infrastructural equipment . The center is an integral part of the Faculty of Medicine and the Rappaport Research Institute which are home for excellent research groups, and enjoys their advanced Interdepartmental Equipment Unit. It is also adjacent to the Rambam Medical Center – the major hospital in the north of Israel – which provides us with access to rich clinical material and collaboration with clinicians. Many of them spend active research periods in our laboratories and bring the bench closer to the patient bed and vice versa. The Center is in an active phase of growth, and offers excellent research opportunities, space and facilities for students, post-doctoral fellows, and physicians.

Research Groups

The Ubiquitin System and Cellular Protein Turnover and Interactions

Immunity and Host Defense

Cardiovascular Biology

The Central Nervous System in Health and Disease

Developmental Biology and Cancer Research

Genetics

SOURCE 

http://www.rappaport.org.il/Rappaport/Templates/ShowPage.asp?DBID=1&TMID=842&FID=76

The cancer and vascular biology research center was established in 2003 to promote an in-depth interdisciplinary basic and clinical research on the control of cellular and molecular processes that are involved in cancer development and progression. Our goal is to advance knowledge in fundamental biological questions that are highly relevant for cancer.

The cancer and vascular biology research center was established in 2003 to promote an in-depth interdisciplinary basic and clinical research on the control of cellular and molecular processes that are involved in cancer development and progression. Our goal is to advance knowledge in fundamental biological questions that are highly relevant for cancer.

SOURCE

http://www.technioncancer.co.il/index.php

Home  >>  Research Groups

Aaron Ciechanover
Protein Turnover

Intracellular protein degradation and mechanisms of cancer
Israel Vlodavsky
Cancer Biology

Impact of heparanase and the tumor microenvironment on cancer progression: Basic aspects and clinical implications
Gera Neufeld
Tumor Progression & Angiogenesis

Blood vessels and tumor progression: The neuropilin connection
Amir Orian
Genetic Networks

Genetic networks in development and cancer
Home
About the Cancer Centers
Research Groups
Administration / Contact
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Links
Beyond Science
Friends and supporters

Ms. Sigal Alfasi – Izrael, Center’s coordinator
e-mail: gsigal@tx.technion.ac.il
Tel: +972-4-829-5424
Fax: +972-4-852-3947

SOURCE

http://www.technioncancer.co.il/ResearchGroups.php

Yuval Shaked, PhD

Assistant Professor of Molecular Pharmacology

PhD, 2004 – Hebrew University, Israel

Understanding host – tumor interactions during cancer therapy

Personalized medicine holds promise of better cures with fewer side effects for many diseases. Individualized cancer therapy is sometimes utilized after multiple attempts of standard therapies and is based on several considerations, such as tumor type, acquired resistance to a specific therapy, previous treatment protocols, and other tumor-related factors. We have recently demonstrated that many cancer therapies can induce pro-tumorigenic or metastatic effects that derive not only from the tumor cells themselves, but also from host cells within the tumor microenvironment. The focus of research in my laboratory is to identify, characterize, and seek ways to block such pro-tumorigenic host effects observed after anti-cancer therapy, and thus potentially improve the outcome of current cancer therapies. Our findings may foster a paradigm shift in cancer therapy by minimizing the gap between preclinical findings and the clinical setting, laying the foundation for development of entirely new strategies for improving cancer therapy.

SOURCE

http://www.rappaport.org.il/Rappaport/Templates/ShowPage.asp?DBID=1&TMID=610&FID=77&PID=0&IID=1268

 

Other Related articled published on this Open Access Online Scientific Journal included the following:

D&D NT’s Solution: Galectin Proteins for Therapy and Diagnosis of Autoimmune Inflammatory and Cancer Diseases, Dr. Itshak Golan, CEO

http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2014/05/28/dd-nts-solution-galectin-proteins-for-therapy-and-diagnosis-of-autoimmune-inflammatory-and-cancer-diseases-dr-itshak-golan-ceo/

MaimoniDex RA:  Monoclonal Antibodies for Therapy and Diagnosis of Cancer and Autoimmune Inflammatory Diseases – Dr. Itshak Golan, CEO

http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2014/05/28/maimonidex-ra-monoclonal-antibodies-for-therapy-and-diagnosis-of-cancer-and-autoimmune-inflammatory-diseases-dr-itshak-golan-ceo/

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Summary – Volume 4, Part 2: Translational Medicine in Cardiovascular Diseases

Summary – Volume 4, Part 2:  Translational Medicine in Cardiovascular Diseases

Author and Curator: Larry H Bernstein, MD, FCAP

 

We have covered a large amount of material that involves

  • the development,
  • application, and
  • validation of outcomes of medical and surgical procedures

that are based on translation of science from the laboratory to the bedside, improving the standards of medical practice at an accelerated pace in the last quarter century, and in the last decade.  Encouraging enabling developments have been:

1. The establishment of national and international outcomes databases for procedures by specialist medical societies

Stent Design and Thrombosis: Bifurcation Intervention, Drug Eluting Stents (DES) and Biodegrable Stents
Curator: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN
http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2013/08/06/stent-design-and-thrombosis-bifurcation-intervention-drug-eluting-stents-des-and-biodegrable-stents/

On Devices and On Algorithms: Prediction of Arrhythmia after Cardiac Surgery and ECG Prediction of an Onset of Paroxysmal Atrial Fibrillation
Author, and Content Consultant to e-SERIES A: Cardiovascular Diseases: Justin Pearlman, MD, PhD, FACC
http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2013/05/07/on-devices-and-on-algorithms-arrhythmia-after-cardiac-surgery-prediction-and-ecg-prediction-of-paroxysmal-atrial-fibrillation-onset/

Mitral Valve Repair: Who is a Patient Candidate for a Non-Ablative Fully Non-Invasive Procedure?
Author, and Content Consultant to e-SERIES A: Cardiovascular Diseases: Justin Pearlman, MD, PhD, FACC and Article Curator: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN
http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2013/11/04/mitral-valve-repair-who-is-a-candidate-for-a-non-ablative-fully-non-invasive-procedure/

Cardiovascular Complications: Death from Reoperative Sternotomy after prior CABG, MVR, AVR, or Radiation; Complications of PCI; Sepsis from Cardiovascular Interventions
Author, Introduction and Summary: Justin D Pearlman, MD, PhD, FACC and Article Curator: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN
http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2013/07/23/cardiovascular-complications-of-multiple-etiologies-repeat-sternotomy-post-cabg-or-avr-post-pci-pad-endoscopy-andor-resultant-of-systemic-sepsis/

Survivals Comparison of Coronary Artery Bypass Graft (CABG) and Percutaneous Coronary Intervention (PCI) /Coronary Angioplasty
Larry H. Bernstein, MD, Writer And Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN, Curator
http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2013/06/23/comparison-of-cardiothoracic-bypass-and-percutaneous-interventional-catheterization-survivals/

Revascularization: PCI, Prior History of PCI vs CABG
Curator: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN
http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2013/04/25/revascularization-pci-prior-history-of-pci-vs-cabg/

Outcomes in High Cardiovascular Risk Patients: Prasugrel (Effient) vs. Clopidogrel (Plavix); Aliskiren (Tekturna) added to ACE or added to ARB
Reporter and Curator: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN
http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2012/08/27/outcomes-in-high-cardiovascular-risk-patients-prasugrel-effient-vs-clopidogrel-plavix-aliskiren-tekturna-added-to-ace-or-added-to-arb/

Endovascular Lower-extremity Revascularization Effectiveness: Vascular Surgeons (VSs), Interventional Cardiologists (ICs) and Interventional Radiologists (IRs)
Curator: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN
http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2012/08/13/coronary-artery-disease-medical-devices-solutions-from-first-in-man-stent-implantation-via-medical-ethical-dilemmas-to-drug-eluting-stents/

and more

2. The identification of problem areas, particularly in activation of the prothrombotic pathways, infection control to an extent, and targeting of pathways leading to progression or to arrythmogenic complications.

Cardiovascular Complications: Death from Reoperative Sternotomy after prior CABG, MVR, AVR, or Radiation; Complications of PCI; Sepsis from Cardiovascular Interventions Author, Introduction and Summary: Justin D Pearlman, MD, PhD, FACC and Article Curator: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN
http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2013/07/23/cardiovascular-complications-of-multiple-etiologies-repeat-sternotomy-post-cabg-or-avr-post-pci-pad-endoscopy-andor-resultant-of-systemic-sepsis/

Anticoagulation genotype guided dosing
Larry H. Bernstein, MD, FCAP, Author and Curator
http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2013/12/08/anticoagulation-genotype-guided-dosing/

Stent Design and Thrombosis: Bifurcation Intervention, Drug Eluting Stents (DES) and Biodegrable Stents
Curator: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN
http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2013/08/06/stent-design-and-thrombosis-bifurcation-intervention-drug-eluting-stents-des-and-biodegrable-stents/

The Effects of Aprotinin on Endothelial Cell Coagulant Biology
Co-Author (Kamran Baig, MBBS, James Jaggers, MD, Jeffrey H. Lawson, MD, PhD) and Curator
http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2013/07/20/the-effects-of-aprotinin-on-endothelial-cell-coagulant-biology/

Outcomes in High Cardiovascular Risk Patients: Prasugrel (Effient) vs. Clopidogrel (Plavix); Aliskiren (Tekturna) added to ACE or added to ARB
Reporter and Curator: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN
http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2012/08/27/outcomes-in-high-cardiovascular-risk-patients-prasugrel-effient-vs-clopidogrel-plavix-aliskiren-tekturna-added-to-ace-or-added-to-arb/

Pharmacogenomics – A New Method for Druggability  Author and Curator: Demet Sag, PhD
http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2014/04/28/pharmacogenomics-a-new-method-for-druggability/

Advanced Topics in Sepsis and the Cardiovascular System at its End Stage    Author: Larry H Bernstein, MD, FCAP
http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2013/08/18/advanced-topics-in-Sepsis-and-the-Cardiovascular-System-at-its-End-Stage/

3. Development of procedures that use a safer materials in vascular management.

Stent Design and Thrombosis: Bifurcation Intervention, Drug Eluting Stents (DES) and Biodegrable Stents
Curator: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN
http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2013/08/06/stent-design-and-thrombosis-bifurcation-intervention-drug-eluting-stents-des-and-biodegrable-stents/

Biomaterials Technology: Models of Tissue Engineering for Reperfusion and Implantable Devices for Revascularization
Author and Curator: Larry H Bernstein, MD, FACP and Curator: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN
http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2013/05/05/bioengineering-of-vascular-and-tissue-models/

Vascular Repair: Stents and Biologically Active Implants
Author and Curator: Larry H Bernstein, MD, FACP and Curator: Aviva Lev-Ari, RN, PhD
http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2013/05/04/stents-biologically-active-implants-and-vascular-repair/

Drug Eluting Stents: On MIT’s Edelman Lab’s Contributions to Vascular Biology and its Pioneering Research on DES
Author: Larry H Bernstein, MD, FACP and Curator: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN
http://PharmaceuticalIntelligence.com/2013/04/25/Contributions-to-vascular-biology/

MedTech & Medical Devices for Cardiovascular Repair – Curations by Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN
http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2014/04/17/medtech-medical-devices-for-cardiovascular-repair-curation-by-aviva-lev-ari-phd-rn/

4. Discrimination of cases presenting for treatment based on qualifications for medical versus surgical intervention.

Treatment Options for Left Ventricular Failure – Temporary Circulatory Support: Intra-aortic balloon pump (IABP) – Impella Recover LD/LP 5.0 and 2.5, Pump Catheters (Non-surgical) vs Bridge Therapy: Percutaneous Left Ventricular Assist Devices (pLVADs) and LVADs (Surgical)
Author: Larry H Bernstein, MD, FCAP And Curator: Justin D Pearlman, MD, PhD, FACC
http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2013/07/17/treatment-options-for-left-ventricular-failure-temporary-circulatory-support-intra-aortic-balloon-pump-iabp-impella-recover-ldlp-5-0-and-2-5-pump-catheters-non-surgical-vs-bridge-therapy/

Coronary Reperfusion Therapies: CABG vs PCI – Mayo Clinic preprocedure Risk Score (MCRS) for Prediction of in-Hospital Mortality after CABG or PCI
Writer and Curator: Larry H. Bernstein, MD, FCAP and Curator: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN
http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2013/06/30/mayo-risk-score-for-percutaneous-coronary-intervention/

ACC/AHA Guidelines for Coronary Artery Bypass Graft Surgery Reporter: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN
http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2013/11/05/accaha-guidelines-for-coronary-artery-bypass-graft-surgery/

Mitral Valve Repair: Who is a Patient Candidate for a Non-Ablative Fully Non-Invasive Procedure?
Author, and Content Consultant to e-SERIES A: Cardiovascular Diseases: Justin Pearlman, MD, PhD, FACC and Article Curator: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN
http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2013/11/04/mitral-valve-repair-who-is-a-candidate-for-a-non-ablative-fully-non-invasive-procedure/ 

5.  This has become possible because of the advances in our knowledge of key related pathogenetic mechanisms involving gene expression and cellular regulation of complex mechanisms.

What is the key method to harness Inflammation to close the doors for many complex diseases?
Author and Curator: Larry H Bernstein, MD, FCAP
http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2014/03/21/what-is-the-key-method-to-harness-inflammation-to-close-the-doors-for-many-complex-diseases/

CVD Prevention and Evaluation of Cardiovascular Imaging Modalities: Coronary Calcium Score by CT Scan Screening to justify or not the Use of Statin
Curator: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN
http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2014/03/03/cvd-prevention-and-evaluation-of-cardiovascular-imaging-modalities-coronary-calcium-score-by-ct-scan-screening-to-justify-or-not-the-use-of-statin/

Richard Lifton, MD, PhD of Yale University and Howard Hughes Medical Institute: Recipient of 2014 Breakthrough Prizes Awarded in Life Sciences for the Discovery of Genes and Biochemical Mechanisms that cause Hypertension
Curator: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN
http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2014/03/03/richard-lifton-md-phd-of-yale-university-and-howard-hughes-medical-institute-recipient-of-2014-breakthrough-prizes-awarded-in-life-sciences-for-the-discovery-of-genes-and-biochemical-mechanisms-tha/

Pathophysiological Effects of Diabetes on Ischemic-Cardiovascular Disease and on Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD)
Curator:  Larry H. Bernstein, MD, FCAP
http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2014/01/15/pathophysiological-effects-of-diabetes-on-ischemic-cardiovascular-disease-and-on-chronic-obstructive-pulmonary-disease-copd/

Atherosclerosis Independence: Genetic Polymorphisms of Ion Channels Role in the Pathogenesis of Coronary Microvascular Dysfunction and Myocardial Ischemia (Coronary Artery Disease (CAD))
Reviewer and Co-Curator: Larry H Bernstein, MD, CAP and Curator: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN
http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2013/12/21/genetic-polymorphisms-of-ion-channels-have-a-role-in-the-pathogenesis-of-coronary-microvascular-dysfunction-and-ischemic-heart-disease/

Notable Contributions to Regenerative Cardiology  Author and Curator: Larry H Bernstein, MD, FCAP and Article Commissioner: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RD
http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2013/10/20/notable-contributions-to-regenerative-cardiology/

As noted in the introduction, any of the material can be found and reviewed by content, and the eTOC is identified in attached:

http://wp.me/p2xfv8-1W

 

This completes what has been presented in Part 2, Vol 4 , and supporting references for the main points that are found in the Leaders in Pharmaceutical Intelligence Cardiovascular book.  Part 1 was concerned with Posttranslational Modification of Proteins, vital for understanding cellular regulation and dysregulation.  Part 2 was concerned with Translational Medical Therapeutics, the efficacy of medical and surgical decisions based on bringing the knowledge gained from the laboratory, and from clinical trials into the realm opf best practice.  The time for this to occur in practice in the past has been through roughly a generation of physicians.  That was in part related to the busy workload of physicians, and inability to easily access specialty literature as the volume and complexity increased.  This had an effect of making access of a family to a primary care provider through a lifetime less likely than the period post WWII into the 1980s.

However, the growth of knowledge has accelerated in the specialties since the 1980’s so that the use of physician referral in time became a concern about the cost of medical care.  This is not the place for or a matter for discussion here.  It is also true that the scientific advances and improvements in available technology have had a great impact on medical outcomes.  The only unrelated issue is that of healthcare delivery, which is not up to the standard set by serial advances in therapeutics, accompanied by high cost due to development costs, marketing costs, and development of drug resistance.

I shall identify continuing developments in cardiovascular diagnostics, therapeutics, and bioengineering that is and has been emerging.

1. Mechanisms of disease

REPORT: Mapping the Cellular Response to Small Molecules Using Chemogenomic Fitness Signatures 

Science 11 April 2014:
Vol. 344 no. 6180 pp. 208-211
http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1250217

Abstract: Genome-wide characterization of the in vivo cellular response to perturbation is fundamental to understanding how cells survive stress. Identifying the proteins and pathways perturbed by small molecules affects biology and medicine by revealing the mechanisms of drug action. We used a yeast chemogenomics platform that quantifies the requirement for each gene for resistance to a compound in vivo to profile 3250 small molecules in a systematic and unbiased manner. We identified 317 compounds that specifically perturb the function of 121 genes and characterized the mechanism of specific compounds. Global analysis revealed that the cellular response to small molecules is limited and described by a network of 45 major chemogenomic signatures. Our results provide a resource for the discovery of functional interactions among genes, chemicals, and biological processes.

Yeasty HIPHOP

Laura Zahn
Sci. Signal. 15 April 2014; 7(321): ec103.   http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/scisignal.2005362

In order to identify how chemical compounds target genes and affect the physiology of the cell, tests of the perturbations that occur when treated with a range of pharmacological chemicals are required. By examining the haploinsufficiency profiling (HIP) and homozygous profiling (HOP) chemogenomic platforms, Lee et al.(p. 208) analyzed the response of yeast to thousands of different small molecules, with genetic, proteomic, and bioinformatic analyses. Over 300 compounds were identified that targeted 121 genes within 45 cellular response signature networks. These networks were used to extrapolate the likely effects of related chemicals, their impact upon genetic pathways, and to identify putative gene functions

Key Heart Failure Culprit Discovered

A team of cardiovascular researchers from the Cardiovascular Research Center at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute, and University of California, San Diego have identified a small, but powerful, new player in thIe onset and progression of heart failure. Their findings, published in the journal Nature  on March 12, also show how they successfully blocked the newly discovered culprit.
Investigators identified a tiny piece of RNA called miR-25 that blocks a gene known as SERCA2a, which regulates the flow of calcium within heart muscle cells. Decreased SERCA2a activity is one of the main causes of poor contraction of the heart and enlargement of heart muscle cells leading to heart failure.

Using a functional screening system developed by researchers at Sanford-Burnham, the research team discovered miR-25 acts pathologically in patients suffering from heart failure, delaying proper calcium uptake in heart muscle cells. According to co-lead study authors Christine Wahlquist and Dr. Agustin Rojas Muñoz, developers of the approach and researchers in Mercola’s lab at Sanford-Burnham, they used high-throughput robotics to sift through the entire genome for microRNAs involved in heart muscle dysfunction.

Subsequently, the researchers at the Cardiovascular Research Center at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai found that injecting a small piece of RNA to inhibit the effects of miR-25 dramatically halted heart failure progression in mice. In addition, it also improved their cardiac function and survival.

“In this study, we have not only identified one of the key cellular processes leading to heart failure, but have also demonstrated the therapeutic potential of blocking this process,” says co-lead study author Dr. Dongtak Jeong, a post-doctoral fellow at the Cardiovascular Research Center at Icahn School of  Medicine at Mount Sinai in the laboratory of the study’s co-senior author Dr. Roger J. Hajjar.

Publication: Inhibition of miR-25 improves cardiac contractility in the failing heart.Christine Wahlquist, Dongtak Jeong, Agustin Rojas-Muñoz, Changwon Kho, Ahyoung Lee, Shinichi Mitsuyama, Alain Van Mil, Woo Jin Park, Joost P. G. Sluijter, Pieter A. F. Doevendans, Roger J. :  Hajjar & Mark Mercola.     Nature (March 2014)    http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nature13073.html

 

“Junk” DNA Tied to Heart Failure

Deep RNA Sequencing Reveals Dynamic Regulation of Myocardial Noncoding RNAs in Failing Human Heart and Remodeling With Mechanical Circulatory Support

Yang KC, Yamada KA, Patel AY, Topkara VK, George I, et al.
Circulation 2014;  129(9):1009-21.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.113.003863              http://circ.ahajournals.org/…/CIRCULATIONAHA.113.003863.full

The myocardial transcriptome is dynamically regulated in advanced heart failure and after LVAD support. The expression profiles of lncRNAs, but not mRNAs or miRNAs, can discriminate failing hearts of different pathologies and are markedly altered in response to LVAD support. These results suggest an important role for lncRNAs in the pathogenesis of heart failure and in reverse remodeling observed with mechanical support.

Junk DNA was long thought to have no important role in heredity or disease because it doesn’t code for proteins. But emerging research in recent years has revealed that many of these sections of the genome produce noncoding RNA molecules that still have important functions in the body. They come in a variety of forms, some more widely studied than others. Of these, about 90% are called long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs), and exploration of their roles in health and disease is just beginning.

The Washington University group performed a comprehensive analysis of all RNA molecules expressed in the human heart. The researchers studied nonfailing hearts and failing hearts before and after patients received pump support from left ventricular assist devices (LVAD). The LVADs increased each heart’s pumping capacity while patients waited for heart transplants.

In their study, the researchers found that unlike other RNA molecules, expression patterns of long noncoding RNAs could distinguish between two major types of heart failure and between failing hearts before and after they received LVAD support.

“The myocardial transcriptome is dynamically regulated in advanced heart failure and after LVAD support. The expression profiles of lncRNAs, but not mRNAs or miRNAs, can discriminate failing hearts of different pathologies and are markedly altered in response to LVAD support,” wrote the researchers. “These results suggest an important role for lncRNAs in the pathogenesis of heart failure and in reverse remodeling observed with mechanical support.”

‘Junk’ Genome Regions Linked to Heart Failure

In a recent issue of the journal Circulation, Washington University investigators report results from the first comprehensive analysis of all RNA molecules expressed in the human heart. The researchers studied nonfailing hearts and failing hearts before and after patients received pump support from left ventricular assist devices (LVAD). The LVADs increased each heart’s pumping capacity while patients waited for heart transplants.

“We took an unbiased approach to investigating which types of RNA might be linked to heart failure,” said senior author Jeanne Nerbonne, the Alumni Endowed Professor of Molecular Biology and Pharmacology. “We were surprised to find that long noncoding RNAs stood out.

In the new study, the investigators found that unlike other RNA molecules, expression patterns of long noncoding RNAs could distinguish between two major types of heart failure and between failing hearts before and after they received LVAD support.

“We don’t know whether these changes in long noncoding RNAs are a cause or an effect of heart failure,” Nerbonne said. “But it seems likely they play some role in coordinating the regulation of multiple genes involved in heart function.”

Nerbonne pointed out that all types of RNA molecules they examined could make the obvious distinction: telling the difference between failing and nonfailing hearts. But only expression of the long noncoding RNAs was measurably different between heart failure associated with a heart attack (ischemic) and heart failure without the obvious trigger of blocked arteries (nonischemic). Similarly, only long noncoding RNAs significantly changed expression patterns after implantation of left ventricular assist devices.

Comment

Decoding the noncoding transcripts in human heart failure

Xiao XG, Touma M, Wang Y
Circulation. 2014; 129(9): 958960,  http://dx.doi.org/10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.114.007548 

Heart failure is a complex disease with a broad spectrum of pathological features. Despite significant advancement in clinical diagnosis through improved imaging modalities and hemodynamic approaches, reliable molecular signatures for better differential diagnosis and better monitoring of heart failure progression remain elusive. The few known clinical biomarkers for heart failure, such as plasma brain natriuretic peptide and troponin, have been shown to have limited use in defining the cause or prognosis of the disease.1,2 Consequently, current clinical identification and classification of heart failure remain descriptive, mostly based on functional and morphological parameters. Therefore, defining the pathogenic mechanisms for hypertrophic versus dilated or ischemic versus nonischemic cardiomyopathies in the failing heart remain a major challenge to both basic science and clinic researchers. In recent years, mechanical circulatory support using left ventricular assist devices (LVADs) has assumed a growing role in the care of patients with end-stage heart failure.3 During the earlier years of LVAD application as a bridge to transplant, it became evident that some patients exhibit substantial recovery of ventricular function, structure, and electric properties.4 This led to the recognition that reverse remodeling is potentially an achievable therapeutic goal using LVADs. However, the underlying mechanism for the reverse remodeling in the LVAD-treated hearts is unclear, and its discovery would likely hold great promise to halt or even reverse the progression of heart failure.

 

Efficacy and Safety of Dabigatran Compared With Warfarin in Relation to Baseline Renal Function in Patients With Atrial Fibrillation: A RE-LY (Randomized Evaluation of Long-term Anticoagulation Therapy) Trial Analysis

Circulation. 2014; 129: 951-952     http://dx.doi.org/10.1161/​CIR.0000000000000022

In patients with atrial fibrillation, impaired renal function is associated with a higher risk of thromboembolic events and major bleeding. Oral anticoagulation with vitamin K antagonists reduces thromboembolic events but raises the risk of bleeding. The new oral anticoagulant dabigatran has 80% renal elimination, and its efficacy and safety might, therefore, be related to renal function. In this prespecified analysis from the Randomized Evaluation of Long-Term Anticoagulant Therapy (RELY) trial, outcomes with dabigatran versus warfarin were evaluated in relation to 4 estimates of renal function, that is, equations based on creatinine levels (Cockcroft-Gault, Modification of Diet in Renal Disease (MDRD), Chronic Kidney Disease Epidemiology Collaboration [CKD-EPI]) and cystatin C. The rates of stroke or systemic embolism were lower with dabigatran 150 mg and similar with 110 mg twice daily irrespective of renal function. Rates of major bleeding were lower with dabigatran 110 mg and similar with 150 mg twice daily across the entire range of renal function. However, when the CKD-EPI or MDRD equations were used, there was a significantly greater relative reduction in major bleeding with both doses of dabigatran than with warfarin in patients with estimated glomerular filtration rate ≥80 mL/min. These findings show that dabigatran can be used with the same efficacy and adequate safety in patients with a wide range of renal function and that a more accurate estimate of renal function might be useful for improved tailoring of anticoagulant treatment in patients with atrial fibrillation and an increased risk of stroke.

Aldosterone Regulates MicroRNAs in the Cortical Collecting Duct to Alter Sodium Transport.

Robert S Edinger, Claudia Coronnello, Andrew J Bodnar, William A Laframboise, Panayiotis V Benos, Jacqueline Ho, John P Johnson, Michael B Butterworth

Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (Impact Factor: 8.99). 04/2014;     http://dx. DO.org/I:10.1681/ASN.2013090931

Source: PubMed

ABSTRACT A role for microRNAs (miRs) in the physiologic regulation of sodium transport in the kidney has not been established. In this study, we investigated the potential of aldosterone to alter miR expression in mouse cortical collecting duct (mCCD) epithelial cells. Microarray studies demonstrated the regulation of miR expression by aldosterone in both cultured mCCD and isolated primary distal nephron principal cells.

Aldosterone regulation of the most significantly downregulated miRs, mmu-miR-335-3p, mmu-miR-290-5p, and mmu-miR-1983 was confirmed by quantitative RT-PCR. Reducing the expression of these miRs separately or in combination increased epithelial sodium channel (ENaC)-mediated sodium transport in mCCD cells, without mineralocorticoid supplementation. Artificially increasing the expression of these miRs by transfection with plasmid precursors or miR mimic constructs blunted aldosterone stimulation of ENaC transport.

Using a newly developed computational approach, termed ComiR, we predicted potential gene targets for the aldosterone-regulated miRs and confirmed ankyrin 3 (Ank3) as a novel aldosterone and miR-regulated protein.

A dual-luciferase assay demonstrated direct binding of the miRs with the Ank3-3′ untranslated region. Overexpression of Ank3 increased and depletion of Ank3 decreased ENaC-mediated sodium transport in mCCD cells. These findings implicate miRs as intermediaries in aldosterone signaling in principal cells of the distal kidney nephron.

 

2. Diagnostic Biomarker Status

A prospective study of the impact of serial troponin measurements on the diagnosis of myocardial infarction and hospital and 6-month mortality in patients admitted to ICU with non-cardiac diagnoses.

Marlies Ostermann, Jessica Lo, Michael Toolan, Emma Tuddenham, Barnaby Sanderson, Katie Lei, John Smith, Anna Griffiths, Ian Webb, James Coutts, John hambers, Paul Collinson, Janet Peacock, David Bennett, David Treacher

Critical care (London, England) (Impact Factor: 4.72). 04/2014; 18(2):R62.   http://dx.doi.org/:10.1186/cc13818

Source: PubMed

ABSTRACT Troponin T (cTnT) elevation is common in patients in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and associated with morbidity and mortality. Our aim was to determine the epidemiology of raised cTnT levels and contemporaneous electrocardiogram (ECG) changes suggesting myocardial infarction (MI) in ICU patients admitted for non-cardiac reasons.
cTnT and ECGs were recorded daily during week 1 and on alternate days during week 2 until discharge from ICU or death. ECGs were interpreted independently for the presence of ischaemic changes. Patients were classified into 4 groups: (i) definite MI (cTnT >=15 ng/L and contemporaneous changes of MI on ECG), (ii) possible MI (cTnT >=15 ng/L and contemporaneous ischaemic changes on ECG), (iii) troponin rise alone (cTnT >=15 ng/L), or (iv) normal. Medical notes were screened independently by two ICU clinicians for evidence that the clinical teams had considered a cardiac event.
Data from 144 patients were analysed [42% female; mean age 61.9 (SD 16.9)]. 121 patients (84%) had at least one cTnT level >=15 ng/L. A total of 20 patients (14%) had a definite MI, 27% had a possible MI, 43% had a cTNT rise without contemporaneous ECG changes, and 16% had no cTNT rise. ICU, hospital and 180 day mortality were significantly higher in patients with a definite or possible MI.Only 20% of definite MIs were recognised by the clinical team. There was no significant difference in mortality between recognised and non-recognised events.At time of cTNT rise, 100 patients (70%) were septic and 58% were on vasopressors. Patients who were septic when cTNT was elevated had an ICU mortality of 28% compared to 9% in patients without sepsis. ICU mortality of patients who were on vasopressors at time of cTNT elevation was 37% compared to 1.7% in patients not on vasopressors.
The majority of critically ill patients (84%) had a cTnT rise and 41% met criteria for a possible or definite MI of whom only 20% were recognised clinically. Mortality up to 180 days was higher in patients with a cTnT rise.

 

Prognostic performance of high-sensitivity cardiac troponin T kinetic changes adjusted for elevated admission values and the GRACE score in an unselected emergency department population.

Moritz BienerMatthias MuellerMehrshad VafaieAllan S JaffeHugo A Katus,Evangelos Giannitsis

Clinica chimica acta; international journal of clinical chemistry (Impact Factor: 2.54). 04/2014;   http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cca.2014.04.007

Source: PubMed

ABSTRACT To test the prognostic performance of rising and falling kinetic changes of high-sensitivity cardiac troponin T (hs-cTnT) and the GRACE score.
Rising and falling hs-cTnT changes in an unselected emergency department population were compared.
635 patients with a hs-cTnT >99th percentile admission value were enrolled. Of these, 572 patients qualified for evaluation with rising patterns (n=254, 44.4%), falling patterns (n=224, 39.2%), or falling patterns following an initial rise (n=94, 16.4%). During 407days of follow-up, we observed 74 deaths, 17 recurrent AMI, and 79 subjects with a composite of death/AMI. Admission values >14ng/L were associated with a higher rate of adverse outcomes (OR, 95%CI:death:12.6, 1.8-92.1, p=0.01, death/AMI:6.7, 1.6-27.9, p=0.01). Neither rising nor falling changes increased the AUC of baseline values (AUC: rising 0.562 vs 0.561, p=ns, falling: 0.533 vs 0.575, p=ns). A GRACE score ≥140 points indicated a higher risk of death (OR, 95%CI: 3.14, 1.84-5.36), AMI (OR,95%CI: 1.56, 0.59-4.17), or death/AMI (OR, 95%CI: 2.49, 1.51-4.11). Hs-cTnT changes did not improve prognostic performance of a GRACE score ≥140 points (AUC, 95%CI: death: 0.635, 0.570-0.701 vs. 0.560, 0.470-0.649 p=ns, AMI: 0.555, 0.418-0.693 vs. 0.603, 0.424-0.782, p=ns, death/AMI: 0.610, 0.545-0.676 vs. 0.538, 0.454-0.622, p=ns). Coronary angiography was performed earlier in patients with rising than with falling kinetics (median, IQR [hours]:13.7, 5.5-28.0 vs. 20.8, 6.3-59.0, p=0.01).
Neither rising nor falling hs-cTnT changes improve prognostic performance of elevated hs-cTnT admission values or the GRACE score. However, rising values are more likely associated with the decision for earlier invasive strategy.

 

Troponin assays for the diagnosis of myocardial infarction and acute coronary syndrome: where do we stand?

Arie Eisenman

ABSTRACT: Under normal circumstances, most intracellular troponin is part of the muscle contractile apparatus, and only a small percentage (< 2-8%) is free in the cytoplasm. The presence of a cardiac-specific troponin in the circulation at levels above normal is good evidence of damage to cardiac muscle cells, such as myocardial infarction, myocarditis, trauma, unstable angina, cardiac surgery or other cardiac procedures. Troponins are released as complexes leading to various cut-off values depending on the assay used. This makes them very sensitive and specific indicators of cardiac injury. As with other cardiac markers, observation of a rise and fall in troponin levels in the appropriate time-frame increases the diagnostic specificity for acute myocardial infarction. They start to rise approximately 4-6 h after the onset of acute myocardial infarction and peak at approximately 24 h, as is the case with creatine kinase-MB. They remain elevated for 7-10 days giving a longer diagnostic window than creatine kinase. Although the diagnosis of various types of acute coronary syndrome remains a clinical-based diagnosis, the use of troponin levels contributes to their classification. This Editorial elaborates on the nature of troponin, its classification, clinical use and importance, as well as comparing it with other currently available cardiac markers.

Expert Review of Cardiovascular Therapy 07/2006; 4(4):509-14.   http://dx.doi.org/:10.1586/14779072.4.4.509 

 

Impact of redefining acute myocardial infarction on incidence, management and reimbursement rate of acute coronary syndromes.

Carísi A Polanczyk, Samir Schneid, Betina V Imhof, Mariana Furtado, Carolina Pithan, Luis E Rohde, Jorge P Ribeiro

ABSTRACT: Although redefinition for acute myocardial infarction (AMI) has been proposed few years ago, to date it has not been universally adopted by many institutions. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the diagnostic, prognostic and economical impact of the new diagnostic criteria for AMI. Patients consecutively admitted to the emergency department with suspected acute coronary syndromes were enrolled in this study. Troponin T (cTnT) was measured in samples collected for routine CK-MB analyses and results were not available to physicians. Patients without AMI by traditional criteria and cTnT > or = 0.035 ng/mL were coded as redefined AMI. Clinical outcomes were hospital death, major cardiac events and revascularization procedures. In-hospital management and reimbursement rates were also analyzed. Among 363 patients, 59 (16%) patients had AMI by conventional criteria, whereas additional 75 (21%) had redefined AMI, an increase of 127% in the incidence. Patients with redefined AMI were significantly older, more frequently male, with atypical chest pain and more risk factors. In multivariate analysis, redefined AMI was associated with 3.1 fold higher hospital death (95% CI: 0.6-14) and a 5.6 fold more cardiac events (95% CI: 2.1-15) compared to those without AMI. From hospital perspective, based on DRGs payment system, adoption of AMI redefinition would increase 12% the reimbursement rate [3552 Int dollars per 100 patients evaluated]. The redefined criteria result in a substantial increase in AMI cases, and allow identification of high-risk patients. Efforts should be made to reinforce the adoption of AMI redefinition, which may result in more qualified and efficient management of ACS.

International Journal of Cardiology 03/2006; 107(2):180-7. · 5.51 Impact Factor   http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167527305005279

 

3. Biomedical Engineerin3g

Safety and Efficacy of an Injectable Extracellular Matrix Hydrogel for Treating Myocardial Infarction 

Sonya B. Seif-Naraghi, Jennifer M. Singelyn, Michael A. Salvatore,  et al.
Sci Transl Med 20 February 2013 5:173ra25  http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/scitranslmed.3005503

Acellular biomaterials can stimulate the local environment to repair tissues without the regulatory and scientific challenges of cell-based therapies. A greater understanding of the mechanisms of such endogenous tissue repair is furthering the design and application of these biomaterials. We discuss recent progress in acellular materials for tissue repair, using cartilage and cardiac tissues as examples of application with substantial intrinsic hurdles, but where human translation is now occurring.

 Acellular Biomaterials: An Evolving Alternative to Cell-Based Therapies

J. A. Burdick, R. L. Mauck, J. H. Gorman, R. C. Gorman,
Sci. Transl. Med. 2013; 5, (176): 176 ps4    http://stm.sciencemag.org/content/5/176/176ps4

Acellular biomaterials can stimulate the local environment to repair tissues without the regulatory and scientific challenges of cell-based therapies. A greater understanding of the mechanisms of such endogenous tissue repair is furthering the design and application of these biomaterials. We discuss recent progress in acellular materials for tissue repair, using cartilage and cardiac tissues as examples of applications with substantial intrinsic hurdles, but where human translation is now occurring.


Instructive Nanofiber Scaffolds with VEGF Create a Microenvironment for Arteriogenesis and Cardiac Repair

Yi-Dong Lin, Chwan-Yau Luo, Yu-Ning Hu, Ming-Long Yeh, Ying-Chang Hsueh, Min-Yao Chang, et al.
Sci Transl Med 8 August 2012; 4(146):ra109.   http://dx.doi.org/ 10.1126/scitranslmed.3003841

Angiogenic therapy is a promising approach for tissue repair and regeneration. However, recent clinical trials with protein delivery or gene therapy to promote angiogenesis have failed to provide therapeutic effects. A key factor for achieving effective revascularization is the durability of the microvasculature and the formation of new arterial vessels. Accordingly, we carried out experiments to test whether intramyocardial injection of self-assembling peptide nanofibers (NFs) combined with vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) could create an intramyocardial microenvironment with prolonged VEGF release to improve post-infarct neovascularization in rats. Our data showed that when injected with NF, VEGF delivery was sustained within the myocardium for up to 14 days, and the side effects of systemic edema and proteinuria were significantly reduced to the same level as that of control. NF/VEGF injection significantly improved angiogenesis, arteriogenesis, and cardiac performance 28 days after myocardial infarction. NF/VEGF injection not only allowed controlled local delivery but also transformed the injected site into a favorable microenvironment that recruited endogenous myofibroblasts and helped achieve effective revascularization. The engineered vascular niche further attracted a new population of cardiomyocyte-like cells to home to the injected sites, suggesting cardiomyocyte regeneration. Follow-up studies in pigs also revealed healing benefits consistent with observations in rats. In summary, this study demonstrates a new strategy for cardiovascular repair with potential for future clinical translation.

Manufacturing Challenges in Regenerative Medicine

I. Martin, P. J. Simmons, D. F. Williams.
Sci. Transl. Med. 2014; 6(232): fs16.   http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/scitranslmed.3008558

Along with scientific and regulatory issues, the translation of cell and tissue therapies in the routine clinical practice needs to address standardization and cost-effectiveness through the definition of suitable manufacturing paradigms.

 

 

 

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Summary of Translational Medicine – e-Series A: Cardiovascular Diseases, Volume Four – Part 1

Summary of Translational Medicine – e-Series A: Cardiovascular Diseases, Volume Four – Part 1

Author and Curator: Larry H Bernstein, MD, FCAP

and

Curator: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

Article ID #135: Summary of Translational Medicine – e-Series A: Cardiovascular Diseases, Volume Four – Part 1. Published on 4/28/2014

WordCloud Image Produced by Adam Tubman

 

Part 1 of Volume 4 in the e-series A: Cardiovascular Diseases and Translational Medicine, provides a foundation for grasping a rapidly developing surging scientific endeavor that is transcending laboratory hypothesis testing and providing guidelines to:

  • Target genomes and multiple nucleotide sequences involved in either coding or in regulation that might have an impact on complex diseases, not necessarily genetic in nature.
  • Target signaling pathways that are demonstrably maladjusted, activated or suppressed in many common and complex diseases, or in their progression.
  • Enable a reduction in failure due to toxicities in the later stages of clinical drug trials as a result of this science-based understanding.
  • Enable a reduction in complications from the improvement of machanical devices that have already had an impact on the practice of interventional procedures in cardiology, cardiac surgery, and radiological imaging, as well as improving laboratory diagnostics at the molecular level.
  • Enable the discovery of new drugs in the continuing emergence of drug resistance.
  • Enable the construction of critical pathways and better guidelines for patient management based on population outcomes data, that will be critically dependent on computational methods and large data-bases.

What has been presented can be essentially viewed in the following Table:

 

Summary Table for TM - Part 1

Summary Table for TM – Part 1

 

 

 

There are some developments that deserve additional development:

1. The importance of mitochondrial function in the activity state of the mitochondria in cellular work (combustion) is understood, and impairments of function are identified in diseases of muscle, cardiac contraction, nerve conduction, ion transport, water balance, and the cytoskeleton – beyond the disordered metabolism in cancer.  A more detailed explanation of the energetics that was elucidated based on the electron transport chain might also be in order.

2. The processes that are enabling a more full application of technology to a host of problems in the environment we live in and in disease modification is growing rapidly, and will change the face of medicine and its allied health sciences.

 

Electron Transport and Bioenergetics

Deferred for metabolomics topic

Synthetic Biology

Introduction to Synthetic Biology and Metabolic Engineering

Kristala L. J. Prather: Part-1    <iBiology > iBioSeminars > Biophysics & Chemical Biology >

http://www.ibiology.org Lecturers generously donate their time to prepare these lectures. The project is funded by NSF and NIGMS, and is supported by the ASCB and HHMI.
Dr. Prather explains that synthetic biology involves applying engineering principles to biological systems to build “biological machines”.

Dr. Prather has received numerous awards both for her innovative research and for excellence in teaching.  Learn more about how Kris became a scientist at
Prather 1: Synthetic Biology and Metabolic Engineering  2/6/14IntroductionLecture Overview In the first part of her lecture, Dr. Prather explains that synthetic biology involves applying engineering principles to biological systems to build “biological machines”. The key material in building these machines is synthetic DNA. Synthetic DNA can be added in different combinations to biological hosts, such as bacteria, turning them into chemical factories that can produce small molecules of choice. In Part 2, Prather describes how her lab used design principles to engineer E. coli that produce glucaric acid from glucose. Glucaric acid is not naturally produced in bacteria, so Prather and her colleagues “bioprospected” enzymes from other organisms and expressed them in E. coli to build the needed enzymatic pathway. Prather walks us through the many steps of optimizing the timing, localization and levels of enzyme expression to produce the greatest yield. Speaker Bio: Kristala Jones Prather received her S.B. degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and her PhD at the University of California, Berkeley both in chemical engineering. Upon graduation, Prather joined the Merck Research Labs for 4 years before returning to academia. Prather is now an Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering at MIT and an investigator with the multi-university Synthetic Biology Engineering Reseach Center (SynBERC). Her lab designs and constructs novel synthetic pathways in microorganisms converting them into tiny factories for the production of small molecules. Dr. Prather has received numerous awards both for her innovative research and for excellence in teaching.

VIEW VIDEOS

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ndThuqVumAk#t=0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ndThuqVumAk#t=12

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ndThuqVumAk#t=74

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ndThuqVumAk#t=129

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ndThuqVumAk#t=168

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ndThuqVumAk

 

II. Regulatory Effects of Mammalian microRNAs

Calcium Cycling in Synthetic and Contractile Phasic or Tonic Vascular Smooth Muscle Cells

in INTECH
Current Basic and Pathological Approaches to
the Function of Muscle Cells and Tissues – From Molecules to HumansLarissa Lipskaia, Isabelle Limon, Regis Bobe and Roger Hajjar
Additional information is available at the end of the chapter
http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/48240
1. Introduction
Calcium ions (Ca ) are present in low concentrations in the cytosol (~100 nM) and in high concentrations (in mM range) in both the extracellular medium and intracellular stores (mainly sarco/endo/plasmic reticulum, SR). This differential allows the calcium ion messenger that carries information
as diverse as contraction, metabolism, apoptosis, proliferation and/or hypertrophic growth. The mechanisms responsible for generating a Ca signal greatly differ from one cell type to another.
In the different types of vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMC), enormous variations do exist with regard to the mechanisms responsible for generating Ca signal. In each VSMC phenotype (synthetic/proliferating and contractile [1], tonic or phasic), the Ca signaling system is adapted to its particular function and is due to the specific patterns of expression and regulation of Ca.
For instance, in contractile VSMCs, the initiation of contractile events is driven by mem- brane depolarization; and the principal entry-point for extracellular Ca is the voltage-operated L-type calcium channel (LTCC). In contrast, in synthetic/proliferating VSMCs, the principal way-in for extracellular Ca is the store-operated calcium (SOC) channel.
Whatever the cell type, the calcium signal consists of  limited elevations of cytosolic free calcium ions in time and space. The calcium pump, sarco/endoplasmic reticulum Ca ATPase (SERCA), has a critical role in determining the frequency of SR Ca release by upload into the sarcoplasmic
sensitivity of  SR calcium channels, Ryanodin Receptor, RyR and Inositol tri-Phosphate Receptor, IP3R.
Synthetic VSMCs have a fibroblast appearance, proliferate readily, and synthesize increased levels of various extracellular matrix components, particularly fibronectin, collagen types I and III, and tropoelastin [1].
Contractile VSMCs have a muscle-like or spindle-shaped appearance and well-developed contractile apparatus resulting from the expression and intracellular accumulation of thick and thin muscle filaments [1].
Schematic representation of Calcium Cycling in Contractile and Proliferating VSMCs

Schematic representation of Calcium Cycling in Contractile and Proliferating VSMCs

 

Figure 1. Schematic representation of Calcium Cycling in Contractile and Proliferating VSMCs.

Left panel: schematic representation of calcium cycling in quiescent /contractile VSMCs. Contractile re-sponse is initiated by extracellular Ca influx due to activation of Receptor Operated Ca (through phosphoinositol-coupled receptor) or to activation of L-Type Calcium channels (through an increase in luminal pressure). Small increase of cytosolic due IP3 binding to IP3R (puff) or RyR activation by LTCC or ROC-dependent Ca influx leads to large SR Ca IP3R or RyR clusters (“Ca -induced Ca SR calcium pumps (both SERCA2a and SERCA2b are expressed in quiescent VSMCs), maintaining high concentration of cytosolic Ca and setting the sensitivity of RyR or IP3R for the next spike.
Contraction of VSMCs occurs during oscillatory Ca transient.
Middle panel: schematic representa tion of atherosclerotic vessel wall. Contractile VSMC are located in the media layer, synthetic VSMC are located in sub-endothelial intima.
Right panel: schematic representation of calcium cycling in quiescent /contractile VSMCs. Agonist binding to phosphoinositol-coupled receptor leads to the activation of IP3R resulting in large increase in cytosolic Ca calcium pumps (only SERCA2b, having low turnover and low affinity to Ca depletion leads to translocation of SR Ca sensor STIM1 towards PM, resulting in extracellular Ca influx though opening of Store Operated Channel (CRAC). Resulted steady state Ca transient is critical for activation of proliferation-related transcription factors ‘NFAT).
Abbreviations: PLC – phospholipase C; PM – plasma membrane; PP2B – Ca /calmodulin-activated protein phosphatase 2B (calcineurin); ROC- receptor activated channel; IP3 – inositol-1,4,5-trisphosphate, IP3R – inositol-1,4,5- trisphosphate receptor; RyR – ryanodine receptor; NFAT – nuclear factor of activated T-lymphocytes; VSMC – vascular smooth muscle cells; SERCA – sarco(endo)plasmic reticulum Ca sarcoplasmic reticulum.

 

Time for New DNA Synthesis and Sequencing Cost Curves

By Rob Carlson

I’ll start with the productivity plot, as this one isn’t new. For a discussion of the substantial performance increase in sequencing compared to Moore’s Law, as well as the difficulty of finding this data, please see this post. If nothing else, keep two features of the plot in mind: 1) the consistency of the pace of Moore’s Law and 2) the inconsistency and pace of sequencing productivity. Illumina appears to be the primary driver, and beneficiary, of improvements in productivity at the moment, especially if you are looking at share prices. It looks like the recently announced NextSeq and Hiseq instruments will provide substantially higher productivities (hand waving, I would say the next datum will come in another order of magnitude higher), but I think I need a bit more data before officially putting another point on the plot.

 

cost-of-oligo-and-gene-synthesis

cost-of-oligo-and-gene-synthesis

Illumina’s instruments are now responsible for such a high percentage of sequencing output that the company is effectively setting prices for the entire industry. Illumina is being pushed by competition to increase performance, but this does not necessarily translate into lower prices. It doesn’t behoove Illumina to drop prices at this point, and we won’t see any substantial decrease until a serious competitor shows up and starts threatening Illumina’s market share. The absence of real competition is the primary reason sequencing prices have flattened out over the last couple of data points.

Note that the oligo prices above are for column-based synthesis, and that oligos synthesized on arrays are much less expensive. However, array synthesis comes with the usual caveat that the quality is generally lower, unless you are getting your DNA from Agilent, which probably means you are getting your dsDNA from Gen9.

Note also that the distinction between the price of oligos and the price of double-stranded sDNA is becoming less useful. Whether you are ordering from Life/Thermo or from your local academic facility, the cost of producing oligos is now, in most cases, independent of their length. That’s because the cost of capital (including rent, insurance, labor, etc) is now more significant than the cost of goods. Consequently, the price reflects the cost of capital rather than the cost of goods. Moreover, the cost of the columns, reagents, and shipping tubes is certainly more than the cost of the atoms in the sDNA you are ostensibly paying for. Once you get into longer oligos (substantially larger than 50-mers) this relationship breaks down and the sDNA is more expensive. But, at this point in time, most people aren’t going to use longer oligos to assemble genes unless they have a tricky job that doesn’t work using short oligos.

Looking forward, I suspect oligos aren’t going to get much cheaper unless someone sorts out how to either 1) replace the requisite human labor and thereby reduce the cost of capital, or 2) finally replace the phosphoramidite chemistry that the industry relies upon.

IDT’s gBlocks come at prices that are constant across quite substantial ranges in length. Moreover, part of the decrease in price for these products is embedded in the fact that you are buying smaller chunks of DNA that you then must assemble and integrate into your organism of choice.

Someone who has purchased and assembled an absolutely enormous amount of sDNA over the last decade, suggested that if prices fell by another order of magnitude, he could switch completely to outsourced assembly. This is a potentially interesting “tipping point”. However, what this person really needs is sDNA integrated in a particular way into a particular genome operating in a particular host. The integration and testing of the new genome in the host organism is where most of the cost is. Given the wide variety of emerging applications, and the growing array of hosts/chassis, it isn’t clear that any given technology or firm will be able to provide arbitrary synthetic sequences incorporated into arbitrary hosts.

 TrackBack URL: http://www.synthesis.cc/cgi-bin/mt/mt-t.cgi/397

 

Startup to Strengthen Synthetic Biology and Regenerative Medicine Industries with Cutting Edge Cell Products

28 Nov 2013 | PR Web

Dr. Jon Rowley and Dr. Uplaksh Kumar, Co-Founders of RoosterBio, Inc., a newly formed biotech startup located in Frederick, are paving the way for even more innovation in the rapidly growing fields of Synthetic Biology and Regenerative Medicine. Synthetic Biology combines engineering principles with basic science to build biological products, including regenerative medicines and cellular therapies. Regenerative medicine is a broad definition for innovative medical therapies that will enable the body to repair, replace, restore and regenerate damaged or diseased cells, tissues and organs. Regenerative therapies that are in clinical trials today may enable repair of damaged heart muscle following heart attack, replacement of skin for burn victims, restoration of movement after spinal cord injury, regeneration of pancreatic tissue for insulin production in diabetics and provide new treatments for Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases, to name just a few applications.

While the potential of the field is promising, the pace of development has been slow. One main reason for this is that the living cells required for these therapies are cost-prohibitive and not supplied at volumes that support many research and product development efforts. RoosterBio will manufacture large quantities of standardized primary cells at high quality and low cost, which will quicken the pace of scientific discovery and translation to the clinic. “Our goal is to accelerate the development of products that incorporate living cells by providing abundant, affordable and high quality materials to researchers that are developing and commercializing these regenerative technologies” says Dr. Rowley

 

Life at the Speed of Light

http://kcpw.org/?powerpress_pinw=92027-podcast

NHMU Lecture featuring – J. Craig Venter, Ph.D.
Founder, Chairman, and CEO – J. Craig Venter Institute; Co-Founder and CEO, Synthetic Genomics Inc.

J. Craig Venter, Ph.D., is Founder, Chairman, and CEO of the J. Craig Venter Institute (JVCI), a not-for-profit, research organization dedicated to human, microbial, plant, synthetic and environmental research. He is also Co-Founder and CEO of Synthetic Genomics Inc. (SGI), a privately-held company dedicated to commercializing genomic-driven solutions to address global needs.

In 1998, Dr. Venter founded Celera Genomics to sequence the human genome using new tools and techniques he and his team developed.  This research culminated with the February 2001 publication of the human genome in the journal, Science. Dr. Venter and his team at JVCI continue to blaze new trails in genomics.  They have sequenced and a created a bacterial cell constructed with synthetic DNA,  putting humankind at the threshold of a new phase of biological research.  Whereas, we could  previously read the genetic code (sequencing genomes), we can now write the genetic code for designing new species.

The science of synthetic genomics will have a profound impact on society, including new methods for chemical and energy production, human health and medical advances, clean water, and new food and nutritional products. One of the most prolific scientists of the 21st century for his numerous pioneering advances in genomics,  he  guides us through this emerging field, detailing its origins, current challenges, and the potential positive advances.

His work on synthetic biology truly embodies the theme of “pushing the boundaries of life.”  Essentially, Venter is seeking to “write the software of life” to create microbes designed by humans rather than only through evolution. The potential benefits and risks of this new technology are enormous. It also requires us to examine, both scientifically and philosophically, the question of “What is life?”

J Craig Venter wants to digitize DNA and transmit the signal to teleport organisms

http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2013/11/01/j-craig-venter-wants-to-digitize-dna-and-transmit-the-signal-to-teleport-organisms/

2013 Genomics: The Era Beyond the Sequencing of the Human Genome: Francis Collins, Craig Venter, Eric Lander, et al.

http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2013/02/11/2013-genomics-the-era-beyond-the-sequencing-human-genome-francis-collins-craig-venter-eric-lander-et-al/

Human Longevity Inc (HLI) – $70M in Financing of Venter’s New Integrative Omics and Clinical Bioinformatics

http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2014/03/05/human-longevity-inc-hli-70m-in-financing-of-venters-new-integrative-omics-and-clinical-bioinformatics/

 

 

Where Will the Century of Biology Lead Us?

By Randall Mayes

A technology trend analyst offers an overview of synthetic biology, its potential applications, obstacles to its development, and prospects for public approval.

  • In addition to boosting the economy, synthetic biology projects currently in development could have profound implications for the future of manufacturing, sustainability, and medicine.
  • Before society can fully reap the benefits of synthetic biology, however, the field requires development and faces a series of hurdles in the process. Do researchers have the scientific know-how and technical capabilities to develop the field?

Biology + Engineering = Synthetic Biology

Bioengineers aim to build synthetic biological systems using compatible standardized parts that behave predictably. Bioengineers synthesize DNA parts—oligonucleotides composed of 50–100 base pairs—which make specialized components that ultimately make a biological system. As biology becomes a true engineering discipline, bioengineers will create genomes using mass-produced modular units similar to the microelectronics and computer industries.

Currently, bioengineering projects cost millions of dollars and take years to develop products. For synthetic biology to become a Schumpeterian revolution, smaller companies will need to be able to afford to use bioengineering concepts for industrial applications. This will require standardized and automated processes.

A major challenge to developing synthetic biology is the complexity of biological systems. When bioengineers assemble synthetic parts, they must prevent cross talk between signals in other biological pathways. Until researchers better understand these undesired interactions that nature has already worked out, applications such as gene therapy will have unwanted side effects. Scientists do not fully understand the effects of environmental and developmental interaction on gene expression. Currently, bioengineers must repeatedly use trial and error to create predictable systems.

Similar to physics, synthetic biology requires the ability to model systems and quantify relationships between variables in biological systems at the molecular level.

The second major challenge to ensuring the success of synthetic biology is the development of enabling technologies. With genomes having billions of nucleotides, this requires fast, powerful, and cost-efficient computers. Moore’s law, named for Intel co-founder Gordon Moore, posits that computing power progresses at a predictable rate and that the number of components in integrated circuits doubles each year until its limits are reached. Since Moore’s prediction, computer power has increased at an exponential rate while pricing has declined.

DNA sequencers and synthesizers are necessary to identify genes and make synthetic DNA sequences. Bioengineer Robert Carlson calculated that the capabilities of DNA sequencers and synthesizers have followed a pattern similar to computing. This pattern, referred to as the Carlson Curve, projects that scientists are approaching the ability to sequence a human genome for $1,000, perhaps in 2020. Carlson calculated that the costs of reading and writing new genes and genomes are falling by a factor of two every 18–24 months. (see recent Carlson comment on requirement to read and write for a variety of limiting  conditions).

Startup to Strengthen Synthetic Biology and Regenerative Medicine Industries with Cutting Edge Cell Products

http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2013/11/28/startup-to-strengthen-synthetic-biology-and-regenerative-medicine-industries-with-cutting-edge-cell-products/

Synthetic Biology: On Advanced Genome Interpretation for Gene Variants and Pathways: What is the Genetic Base of Atherosclerosis and Loss of Arterial Elasticity with Aging

http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2013/05/17/synthetic-biology-on-advanced-genome-interpretation-for-gene-variants-and-pathways-what-is-the-genetic-base-of-atherosclerosis-and-loss-of-arterial-elasticity-with-aging/

Synthesizing Synthetic Biology: PLOS Collections

http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2012/08/17/synthesizing-synthetic-biology-plos-collections/

Capturing ten-color ultrasharp images of synthetic DNA structures resembling numerals 0 to 9

http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2014/02/05/capturing-ten-color-ultrasharp-images-of-synthetic-dna-structures-resembling-numerals-0-to-9/

Silencing Cancers with Synthetic siRNAs

http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2013/12/09/silencing-cancers-with-synthetic-sirnas/

Genomics Now—and Beyond the Bubble

Futurists have touted the twenty-first century as the century of biology based primarily on the promise of genomics. Medical researchers aim to use variations within genes as biomarkers for diseases, personalized treatments, and drug responses. Currently, we are experiencing a genomics bubble, but with advances in understanding biological complexity and the development of enabling technologies, synthetic biology is reviving optimism in many fields, particularly medicine.

BY MICHAEL BROOKS    17 APR, 2014     http://www.newstatesman.com/

Michael Brooks holds a PhD in quantum physics. He writes a weekly science column for the New Statesman, and his most recent book is The Secret Anarchy of Science.

The basic idea is that we take an organism – a bacterium, say – and re-engineer its genome so that it does something different. You might, for instance, make it ingest carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, process it and excrete crude oil.

That project is still under construction, but others, such as using synthesised DNA for data storage, have already been achieved. As evolution has proved, DNA is an extraordinarily stable medium that can preserve information for millions of years. In 2012, the Harvard geneticist George Church proved its potential by taking a book he had written, encoding it in a synthesised strand of DNA, and then making DNA sequencing machines read it back to him.

When we first started achieving such things it was costly and time-consuming and demanded extraordinary resources, such as those available to the millionaire biologist Craig Venter. Venter’s team spent most of the past two decades and tens of millions of dollars creating the first artificial organism, nicknamed “Synthia”. Using computer programs and robots that process the necessary chemicals, the team rebuilt the genome of the bacterium Mycoplasma mycoides from scratch. They also inserted a few watermarks and puzzles into the DNA sequence, partly as an identifying measure for safety’s sake, but mostly as a publicity stunt.

What they didn’t do was redesign the genome to do anything interesting. When the synthetic genome was inserted into an eviscerated bacterial cell, the new organism behaved exactly the same as its natural counterpart. Nevertheless, that Synthia, as Venter put it at the press conference to announce the research in 2010, was “the first self-replicating species we’ve had on the planet whose parent is a computer” made it a standout achievement.

Today, however, we have entered another era in synthetic biology and Venter faces stiff competition. The Steve Jobs to Venter’s Bill Gates is Jef Boeke, who researches yeast genetics at New York University.

Boeke wanted to redesign the yeast genome so that he could strip out various parts to see what they did. Because it took a private company a year to complete just a small part of the task, at a cost of $50,000, he realised he should go open-source. By teaching an undergraduate course on how to build a genome and teaming up with institutions all over the world, he has assembled a skilled workforce that, tinkering together, has made a synthetic chromosome for baker’s yeast.

 

Stepping into DIYbio and Synthetic Biology at ScienceHack

Posted April 22, 2014 by Heather McGaw and Kyrie Vala-Webb

We got a crash course on genetics and protein pathways, and then set out to design and build our own pathways using both the “Genomikon: Violacein Factory” kit and Synbiota platform. With Synbiota’s software, we dragged and dropped the enzymes to create the sequence that we were then going to build out. After a process of sketching ideas, mocking up pathways, and writing hypotheses, we were ready to start building!

The night stretched long, and at midnight we were forced to vacate the school. Not quite finished, we loaded our delicate bacteria, incubator, and boxes of gloves onto the bus and headed back to complete our bacterial transformation in one of our hotel rooms. Jammed in between the beds and the mini-fridge, we heat-shocked our bacteria in the hotel ice bucket. It was a surreal moment.

While waiting for our bacteria, we held an “unconference” where we explored bioethics, security and risk related to synthetic biology, 3D printing on Mars, patterns in juggling (with live demonstration!), and even did a Google Hangout with Rob Carlson. Every few hours, we would excitedly check in on our bacteria, looking for bacterial colonies and the purple hue characteristic of violacein.

Most impressive was the wildly successful and seamless integration of a diverse set of people: in a matter of hours, we were transformed from individual experts and practitioners in assorted fields into cohesive and passionate teams of DIY biologists and science hackers. The ability of everyone to connect and learn was a powerful experience, and over the course of just one weekend we were able to challenge each other and grow.

Returning to work on Monday, we were hungry for more. We wanted to find a way to bring the excitement and energy from the weekend into the studio and into the projects we’re working on. It struck us that there are strong parallels between design and DIYbio, and we knew there was an opportunity to bring some of the scientific approaches and curiosity into our studio.

 

 

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Introduction to e-Series A: Cardiovascular Diseases, Volume Four Part 2: Regenerative Medicine

Introduction to e-Series A: Cardiovascular Diseases, Volume Four Part 2: Regenerative Medicine

Author and Curator: Larry H Bernstein, MD, FCAP

and

Curator: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

This document is entirely devoted to medical and surgical therapies that have made huge strides in

  • simplification of interventional procedures,
  • reduced complexity, resulting in procedures previously requiring surgery are now done, circumstances permitting, by medical intervention.

This revolution in cardiovascular interventional therapy is regenerative medicine.  It is regenerative because it is largely driven by

  • the introduction into the impaired vasculature of an induced pleuripotent cell, called a stem cell, although
  • the level of differentiation may not be a most primitive cell line.

There is also a very closely aligned development in cell biology that extends beyond and including vascular regeneration that is called synthetic biology.  These developments have occurred at an accelerated rate in the last 15 years. The methods of interventional cardiology were already well developed in the mid 1980s.  This was at the peak of cardiothoracic bypass surgery.

Research on the endothelial cell,

  • endothelial cell proliferation,
  • shear flow in small arteries, especially at branch points, and
  • endothelial-platelet interactions

led to insights about plaque formation and vessel thrombosis.

Much was learned in biomechanics about the shear flow stresses on the luminal surface of the vasculature, and there was also

  • the concomitant discovery of nitric oxide,
  • oxidative stress, and
  • the isoenzymes of nitric oxide synthase (eNOS, iNOS, and nNOS).

It became a fundamental tenet of vascular biology that

  • atherogenesis is a maladjustment to oxidative stress not only through genetic, but also
  • non-genetic nutritional factors that could be related to the balance of omega (ω)-3 and omega (ω)-6 fatty acids,
  • a pro-inflammatory state that elicits inflammatory cytokines, such as, interleukin-6 (IL6) and c-reactive protein(CRP),
  • insulin resistance with excess carbohydrate associated with type 2 diabetes and beta (β) cell stress,
  • excess trans- and saturated fats, and perhaps
  • the now plausible colonic microbial population of the gastrointestinal tract (GIT).

There is also an association of abdominal adiposity,

  • including the visceral peritoneum, with both T2DM and with arteriosclerotic vessel disease,
  • which is presenting at a young age, and has ties to
  • the effects of an adipokine, adiponectin.

Much important work has already been discussed in the domain of cardiac catheterization and research done to

  • prevent atheroembolization.and beyond that,
  • research done to implant an endothelial growth matrix.

Even then, dramatic work had already been done on

  • the platelet structure and metabolism, and
  • this has transformed our knowledge of platelet biology.

The coagulation process has been discussed in detailed in a previous document.  The result was the development of a

  • new class of platelet aggregation inhibitors designed to block the activation of protein on the platelet surface that
  • is critical in the coagulation cascade.

In addition, the term long used to describe atherosclerosis, atheroma notwithstanding, is “hardening of the arteries”.  This is particularly notable with respect to mid-size arteries and arterioles that feed the heart and kidneys. Whether it is preceded by or develops concurrently with chronic renal insufficiency and lowered glomerular filtration rate is perhaps arguable.  However, there is now a body of evidence that points to

  • a change in the vascular muscularis and vessel stiffness, in addition to the endothelial features already mentioned.

This has provided a basis for

  • targeted pharmaceutical intervention, and
  • reduction in salt intake.

So we have a  group of metabolic disorders, which may alone or in combination,

  • lead to and be associated with the long term effects of cardiovascular disease, including
  • congestive heart failure.

This has been classically broken down into forward and backward failure,

  • depending on decrease outflow through the aorta (ejection fraction), or
  • decreased venous return through the vena cava,

which involves increased pulmonary vascular resistance and decreased return into the left atrium.

This also has ties to several causes, which may be cardiac or vascular. This document, as the previous, has four pats.  They are broadly:

  1. Stem Cells in Cardiovascular Diseases
  2. Regenerative Cell and Molecular Biology
  3. Therapeutics Levels In Molecular Cardiology
  4. Research Proposals for Endogenous Augmentation of circulating Endothelial Progenitor Cells (cEPCs)

As in the previous section, we start with the biology of the stem cell and the degeneration in cardiovascular diseases, then proceed to regeneration, then therapeutics, and finally – proposals for augmenting therapy with circulating endogenous endothelial progenitor cells (cEPCs).

 

context

stem cells

 

theme

regeneration

 

 

 

 

theme

Therapeutics

 

theme

augmentation

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Key pathways involving NO

Key pathways involving NO

 

 

 

 

stem cell lin28

stem cellLlin28

1479-5876-10-175-1-l  translational research with feedback loops

Tranlational Research -Lab to Bedside

 

 

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Cardiovascular Diseases and Pharmacological Therapy: Curations by Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

Cardiovascular Diseases and Pharmacological Therapy: Curations by Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN, 2006 – 4/2018

 

+120 articles listed below cover the following topics:

  • National Trends: Cardiovascular-related Hospital stay, Cost of Treatment & Societal Burden
  • Introduction to Drug Types: De Novo Brand, Generic, Biologics, Biosimsilars
  • Anti-Inflammatory & Systemic Inflammatory
  • Anti-thrombotic Drug Class & Novel Oral Anticoagulants (NOACs)
  • Pharmaco-Genetics response to Congenital and Spontaneous Mutations: new drugs and new biomarkers for Atherosclerosis, Genetic-related Novel Anti-Cholesterol, Lipids, LDL, HDL, Hypertriglyceridemia Hyperlipidemia
  • Epigenetics, Gender differences and Life Style: DM, Obesity, Hormonal Markers, Diets, Chrono-therapeutics
  • BP Management: Genetics & Human Adaptive Immunity
  • Anti-arrhythmic Drugs – Atrial Fibrillation (AF) & Silent Cerebral Infarctions
  • MI, Acute Coronary Syndrome (ACS) and Heart Failure (HF)
  • Calcium &Cardiovascular Diseases: Contractile Dysfunction, Calcium as Neurotransmitter Sensor
  • Regeneration: Cardiac System (cardiomyogenesis) and Vasculature (angiogenesis)
  • Vascular Biology, Atherosclerosis and Molecular Cardiology

 

A new mechanism of action to attack in the treatment of coronary artery disease (CAD), Novartis developed Ilaris (canakinumab), a human monoclonal antibody targeting the interleukin-1beta innate immunity pathway

Reporter: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2018/04/06/a-new-mechanism-of-action-to-attack-in-the-treatment-of-coronary-artery-disease-cad-novartis-developed-ilaris-canakinumab-a-human-monoclonal-antibody-targeting-the-interleukin-1beta-innate-i/

 

Advantages and Disadvantages of Novel Oral Anticoagulants (NOACs)

Reporter: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2018/03/20/advantages-and-disadvantages-of-novel-oral-anticoagulants-noacs/

 

Acute Coronary Syndrome (ACS): Strategies in Anticoagulant Selection: Diagnostics Approaches – Genetic Testing Aids vs. Biomarkers (Troponin types and BNP)

Curator: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2018/03/13/acute-coronary-syndrome-acs-strategies-in-anticoagulant-selection-diagnostics-approaches-genetic-testing-aids-vs-biomarkers-troponin-types-and-bnp/

 

Cholesterol Lowering Novel PCSK9 drugs: Praluent [Sanofi and Regeneron] vs Repatha [Amgen] – which drug cuts CV risks enough to make it cost-effective?

Reporter: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2018/03/12/cholesterol-lowering-novel-pcsk9-drugs-praluent-sanofi-and-regeneron-vs-repatha-amgen-which-drug-cuts-cv-risks-enough-to-make-it-cost-effective/

 

Higher BMI (Obesity Marker): Earlier onset of incident CVD followed by Shorter overall Survival – Men and women of all ages

Reporter: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2018/03/05/higher-bmi-obesity-marker-earlier-onset-of-incident-cvd-followed-by-shorter-overall-survival-men-and-women-of-all-ages/

 

ODYSSEY Outcomes trial evaluating the effects of a PCSK9 inhibitor, alirocumab, on major cardiovascular events in patients with an acute coronary syndrome to be presented at the American College of Cardiology meeting on March 10.

Reporter: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2018/02/28/odyssey-outcomes-trial-evaluating-the-effects-of-a-pcsk9-inhibitor-alirocumab-on-major-cardiovascular-events-in-patients-with-an-acute-coronary-syndrome-to-be-presented-at-the-america/

 

Sex and Gender Connections: Heart and Brain Disease in Women

Reporter: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2018/02/28/sex-and-gender-connections-heart-and-brain-disease-in-women/

 

In 2018 Cardiovascular PharmacoTherapy Market: Anti-thrombotic Drug Class Segment will continue to bring in the biggest profit and dominate production

Reporter: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2018/02/27/in-2018-cardiovascular-pharmacotherapy-market-anti-thrombotic-drug-class-segment-will-continue-to-bring-in-the-biggest-profit-and-dominate-production/

 

Cost per Inpatient Hospital Stay: Five cardiovascular issues ranked in the top 10 – #1 Heart valve disorders, #2 Acute myocardial infarction (heart attack), #4 Coronary atherosclerosis, #7 Septicemia, #10 Acute cerebrovascular disease

Reporter: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2018/02/27/cost-per-inpatient-hospital-stay-five-cardiovascular-issues-ranked-in-the-top-10-1-heart-valve-disorders-2-acute-myocardial-infarction-heart-attack-4-coronary-atherosclerosis/

 

There may be a genetic basis to CAD and that CXCL5 may be of therapeutic interest

Reporter: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2018/02/09/there-may-be-a-genetic-basis-to-cad-and-that-cxcl5-may-be-of-therapeutic-interest/

 

FDA Approval marks first presentation of bivalirudin in frozen, premixed, ready-to-use formulation

Reporter: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2018/01/24/fda-approval-marks-first-presentation-of-bivalirudin-in-frozen-premixed-ready-to-use-formulation/

 

What Level of Blood Pressure (BP) should be Treated? Comments on the New Guidelines

Reporter: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2018/01/24/what-level-of-blood-pressure-bp-should-be-treated-comments-on-the-new-guidelines/

 

FDA approval on 12/1/2017 of Amgen’s evolocumb (Repatha) a PCSK9 inhibitor for the prevention of heart attacks, strokes, and coronary revascularizations in patients with established cardiovascular disease

Reporter: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2017/12/01/fda-approval-on-12-1-2017-of-amgens-evolocumb-repatha-a-pcsk9-inhibitor-for-the-prevention-of-heart-attacks-strokes-and-coronary-revascularizations-in-patients-with-established-cardiovascular-di/

 

Long-term Canakinumab Treatment Lowering Inflammation Independent of Lipid Levels for Residual Inflammatory Risk Benefit – Personalized Medicine for Recurrent MI, Strokes and Cardiovascular Death

Reporter: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2017/11/21/long-term-canakinumab-treatment-lowering-inflammation-independent-of-lipid-levels-for-residual-inflammatory-risk-benefit-personalized-medicine-for-recurrent-mi-strokes-and-cardiovascular-death/

 

Daily Highlights at 2017 American Heart Association Annual Meeting Scientific Sessions

Reporter: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2017/11/14/daily-highlights-at-2017-american-heart-association-annual-meeting-scientific-sessions/

 

2017 Guideline for the Prevention, Detection, Evaluation and Management of High Blood Pressure in Adults – A REPORT OF THE American College of Cardiology/ American Heart Association Task Force on Clinical Practice Guidelines

Reporter: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2017/11/14/2017-guideline-for-the-prevention-detection-evaluation-and-management-of-high-blood-pressure-in-adults-a-report-of-the-american-college-of-cardiology-american-heart-association-task-force-on-clin/

 

2017 American Heart Association Annual Meeting: Sunday’s Science at #AHA17 – Presidential Address

Reporter: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2017/11/13/2017-american-heart-association-annual-meeting-sundays-science-at-aha17-presidential-address/

 

Systemic Inflammatory Diseases as Crohn’s disease, Rheumatoid Arthritis and Longer Psoriasis Duration May Mean Higher CVD Risk

Reporter: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2017/10/09/systemic-inflammatory-diseases-as-crohns-disease-rheumatoid-arthritis-and-longer-psoriasis-duration-may-mean-higher-cvd-risk/

 

Shaun Coughlin from UCSF Cardiovascular Research Center to cardio group for the Novartis Institute for Biomedical Research in Cambridge, MA

Reporter: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2017/08/17/shaun-coughlin-from-ucsf-cardiovascular-research-center-to-cardio-group-for-the-novartis-institute-for-biomedical-research-in-cambridge-ma/

 

In Europe, BigData@Heart aim to improve patient outcomes and reduce societal burden of atrial fibrillation (AF), heart failure (HF) and acute coronary syndrome (ACS).

Reporter: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2017/07/10/in-europe-bigdataheart-aim-to-improve-patient-outcomes-and-reduce-societal-burden-of-atrial-fibrillation-af-heart-failure-hf-and-acute-coronary-syndrome-acs/

 

SNP-based Study on high BMI exposure confirms CVD and DM Risks – no associations with Stroke

Reporter: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2017/07/10/snp-based-study-on-high-bmi-exposure-confirms-cvd-and-dm-risks-no-associations-with-stroke/

 

Tweets by @pharma_BI and @AVIVA1950 at World Medical Innovation Forum – CARDIOVASCULAR • MAY 1-3, 2017, BOSTON, MA

Curator: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2017/05/05/tweets-by-pharma_bi-and-aviva1950-at-world-medical-innovation-forum-cardiovascular-%E2%80%A2-may-1-3-2017-boston-ma/

 

e-Proceedings for Day 1,2,3: World Medical Innovation Forum – CARDIOVASCULAR • MAY 1-3, 2017, BOSTON, MA

Curator and Reporter: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2017/05/05/e-proceedings-for-day-123-world-medical-innovation-forum-cardiovascular-%E2%80%A2-may-1-3-2017-boston-ma/

REAL TIME Highlights and Tweets: Day 1,2,3: World Medical Innovation Forum – CARDIOVASCULAR • MAY 1-3, 2017, BOSTON, MA

Author and Curator: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2017/05/03/deliverables-day-123-world-medical-innovation-forum-cardiovascular-%E2%80%A2-may-1-3-2017-boston-ma-httpsworldmedicalinnovation-orgagenda-highlights-of-live-day-1-world-medical/

 

Expedite Use of Agents in Clinical Trials: New Drug Formulary Created – The NCI Formulary is a public-private partnership between NCI, part of the National Institutes of Health, and pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies

Reporter: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2017/01/12/expedite-use-of-agents-in-clinical-trials-new-drug-formulary-created-the-nci-formulary-is-a-public-private-partnership-between-nci-part-of-the-national-institutes-of-health-and-pharmaceutical-and/

 

Reversing Heart Disease: Combination of PCSK9 Inhibitors and Statins – Opinion by Steven Nissen, MD, Chairman of Cardiovascular Medicine at Cleveland Clinic

Reporter: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2016/12/29/reversing-heart-disease-combination-of-pcsk9-inhibitors-and-statins-opinion-by-steven-nissen-md-chairman-of-cardiovascular-medicine-at-cleveland-clinicopinion-on-reversing-heart-disease-combinat/

 

Coronary Heart Disease Research: Sugar Industry influenced national conversation on heart disease – Adoption of Low Fat Diet vs Low Carbohydrates Diet

Reporter: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2016/09/17/coronary-heart-disease-research-sugar-industry-influenced-national-conversation-on-heart-disease-adoption-of-low-fat-diet-vs-low-carbohydrates-diet/

 

Pathophysiology in Hypertension: Opposing Roles of Human Adaptive Immunity

Reporter: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2016/08/19/pathophysiology-in-hypertension-opposing-roles-of-human-adaptive-immunity/

 

PCSK9 inhibitors: Reducing annual drug prices from more than $14 000 to $4536 would be necessary to meet a $100 000 per QALY threshold per JAMA

Curator: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2016/08/17/pcsk9-inhibitors-reducing-annual-drug-prices-from-more-than-14%E2%80%AF000-to-4536-would-be-necessary-to-meet-a-100%E2%80%AF000-per-qaly-threshold-per-jama/

 

The presence of any Valvular Heart Disease (VHD) did not influence the comparison of Dabigatran [Pradaxa, Boehringer Ingelheim] with Warfarin

Reporter: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2016/08/16/the-presence-of-any-valvular-heart-disease-vhd-did-not-influence-the-comparison-of-dabigatran-pradaxa-boehringer-ingelheim-with-warfarin/

 

Resveratrol, an antioxidant found in red wine presented since 2003 presented for its potential to lower risk for cardiovascular disease and neurodegeneration by increasing cell survival and slowing aging: 2014 Study – Diet rich in resveratrol offers no health boost

Reporter: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2016/07/25/resveratrol-an-antioxidant-found-in-red-wine-2014-study-resveratrol-offers-no-health-boost/

 

Amgen’s Corlanor® can help Reduce the Risk of Hospitalization for Patients with worsening Heart Failure

Reporter: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2016/05/04/amgens-corlanor-can-help-reduce-the-risk-of-hospitalization-for-patients-with-worsening-heart-failure/

 

Effectiveness of Anti-arrhythmic Drugs: Amiodarone and Lidocaine, for treating sudden cardiac arrest, increasing likelihood of Patients Surviving Emergency Transport to Hospital

Curator: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2016/04/04/effectiveness-of-anti-arrhythmic-drugs-amiodarone-and-lidocaine-for-treating-sudden-cardiac-arrest-increasing-likelihood-of-patients-surviving-emergency-transport-to-hospital/

 

Efficacy and Tolerability of PCSK9 Inhibitors by Patients with Muscle-related Statin Intolerance – New Cleveland Clinic study published in JAMA 4/2016

Curators: Larry H. Bernstein, MD, FCAP and Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2016/04/03/efficacy-and-tolerability-of-pcsk9-inhibitors-by-patients-with-muscle-related-statin-intolerance-new-cleveland-clinic-study-published-in-jama-42016/

 

Triglycerides: Is it a Risk Factor or a Risk Marker for Atherosclerosis and Cardiovascular Disease ? The Impact of Genetic Mutations on (ANGPTL4) Gene, encoder of (angiopoietin-like 4) Protein, inhibitor of Lipoprotein Lipase

Reporters, Curators and Authors: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN and Larry H. Bernstein, MD, FCAP

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2016/03/13/triglycerides-is-it-a-risk-factor-or-a-risk-marker-for-atherosclerosis-and-cardiovascular-disease-the-impact-of-genetic-mutations-on-angptl4-gene-encoder-of-angiopoietin-like-4-protein-that-in/

 

In One-Hour: A Diagnosis of Heart Attack made possible by one Blood Test

Reporter: Larry H Bernstein, MD, FCAP

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2016/01/14/in-one-hour-a-diagnosis-of-heart-attack-made-possible-by-one-blood-test/

 

Heart-Failure–Related Mortality Rate: CDC Reports comparison of 2000, 2012, 2014  – the decease is steadily reversed

Reporter: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2016/01/05/heart-failure-related-mortality-rate-cdc-reports-comparison-of-2000-2012-2014-the-decease-is-steadily-reversed/

 

PCSK9: A Recent Discovery in Understanding Cholesterol Regulation @ AMGEN Cardiovascular

Reporter: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2015/08/04/pcsk9-a-recent-discovery-in-understanding-cholesterol-regulation-amgen-cardiovascular/

 

Praluent – FDA approved as Cholesterol-lowering Medicine for Patient non responsive to Statin due to Genetic origin of Hypercholesterolemia

Reporter: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2015/07/27/praluent-fda-approved-as-cholesterol-lowering-medicine-for-patient-non-responsive-to-statin-due-to-genetic-origin-of-hypercholesterolemia/

 

Atherosclerosis: What is New in Biomarker Discovery

Reporter: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2015/07/01/atherosclerosis-what-is-new-in-biomarker-discovery/

 

Cangrelor wins Clopidogrel (Plavix): reduction of Risk of a composite of all-cause mortality, myocardial infarction, ischemia driven revascularization, and stent thrombosis

Reporter: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2015/04/16/cangrelor-wins-clopidogrel-plavix-reduction-of-risk-of-a-composite-of-all-cause-mortality-myocardial-infarction-ischemia-driven-revascularization-and-stent-thrombosis/

 

Sets of co-expressed Genes influence Blood Pressure Regulation: Genome-wide Association and mRNA expression @US National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute

Reporter: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2015/04/16/sets-of-co-expressed-genes-influence-blood-pressure-regulation-genome-wide-association-and-mrna-expression-us-national-heart-lung-and-blood-institute/

 

HDL-C: Target of Therapy – Steven E. Nissen, MD, MACC, Cleveland Clinic vs Peter Libby, MD, BWH

Reporter: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2014/11/07/hdl-c-target-of-therapy-steven-e-nissen-md-macc-cleveland-clinic-vs-peter-libby-md-bwh/

 

Atrial Fibrillation and Silent Cerebral Infarctions: A Meta Analysis Study and Literature Review

Reporter: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2014/11/04/atrial-fibrillation-and-silent-cerebral-infarctions-a-meta-analysis-study-and-literature-review/

 

Intracranial Vascular Stenosis: Comparison of Clinical Trials: Percutaneous Transluminal Angioplasty and Stenting (PTAS) vs. Clot-inhibiting Drugs: Aspirin and Clopidogrel (dual antiplatelet therapy) – more Strokes if Stenting

Reporter: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2014/10/15/intracranial-vascular-stenosis-comparison-of-clinical-trials-percutaneous-transluminal-angioplasty-and-stenting-ptas-vs-clot-inhibiting-drugs-aspirin-and-clopidogrel-dual-antiplatelet-therapy/

 

Hypertension: It is Autoimmunity that Underlies its Development in Humans

Reporter: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2014/10/08/hypertension-it-is-autoimmunity-that-underlies-its-development-in-humans/

 

OPINION LEADERSHIP on Cardiovascular Diseases

Cardiovascular Original Research: Cases in Methodology Design for Content Co-Curation

  • Cardiovascular Diseases, Volume Two: Cardiovascular Original Research: Cases in Methodology Design for Content Co-Curation. On Amazon.com since 11/30/2015

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B018Q5MCN8

 Epilogue to Volume Two

Author and Curator: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN, Editor-in-Chief, BioMed e-Series of e-Books

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2014/07/31/opinion-leadership-on-cardiovascular-diseases/

 

Risk of Major Cardiovascular Events by LDL-Cholesterol Level (mg/dL): Among those treated with high-dose statin therapy, more than 40% of patients failed to achieve an LDL-cholesterol target of less than 70 mg/dL.

Reporter: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2014/07/29/risk-of-major-cardiovascular-events-by-ldl-cholesterol-level-mgdl-among-those-treated-with-high-dose-statin-therapy-more-than-40-of-patients-failed-to-achieve-an-ldl-cholesterol-target-of-less-th/

 

Commentary on Biomarkers for Genetics and Genomics of Cardiovascular Disease: Views by Larry H Bernstein, MD, FCAP

Commissioned article, Author: Larry H Bernstein, MD, FCAP

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2014/07/16/commentary-on-biomarkers-for-genetics-and-genomics-of-cardiovascular-disease-views-by-larry-h-bernstein-md-fcap/

 

Coagulation Therapy: Leading New Drugs – Efficacy Comparison

Curator: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2014/05/10/coagulation-therapy-leading-new-drugs-efficacy-comparison/

 

Apixaban (Eliquis): Mechanism of Action, Drug Comparison and Additional Indications

Curator: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2014/05/10/apixaban-eliquis-mechanism-of-action-drug-comparison-and-additional-indications/

 

Boston Heart Diagnostics (BHD) offers Statin Induced Myopathy (SLCO1B1) Genotype test and genetic tests targeting ApoE, Factor V Leiden, prothrombin (Factor II), and CYP2C19

Reporter: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2014/04/17/boston-heart-diagnostics-bhd-offers-statin-induced-myopathy-slco1b1-genotype-test-and-genetic-tests-targeting-apoe-factor-v-leiden-prothrombin-factor-ii-and-cyp2c19/

 

@@@ Cardiovascular Diseases and Pharmacological Therapy: Curations by Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

Curator: Aviva Leve-Ari, PhD, RN

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2014/04/17/cardiovascular-diseases-and-pharmacological-therapy-curations-by-aviva-lev-ari-phd-rn/

 

Richard Lifton, MD, PhD of Yale University & Howard Hughes Medical Institute: Recipient of 2014 Breakthrough Prizes Awarded in Life Sciences for the Discovery of Genes and Biochemical Mechanisms that cause Hypertension

Curator: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2014/03/03/richard-lifton-md-phd-of-yale-university-and-howard-hughes-medical-institute-recipient-of-2014-breakthrough-prizes-awarded-in-life-sciences-for-the-discovery-of-genes-and-biochemical-mechanisms-tha/

 

Differences in Health Services Utilization and Costs between Antihypertensive Medication Users Versus Nonusers in Adults with Diabetes and Concomitant Hypertension from Medical Expenditure Panel Su…

Reporter: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2014/02/28/differences-in-health-services-utilization-and-costs-between-antihypertensive-medication-users-versus-nonusers-in-adults-with-diabetes-and-concomitant-hypertension-from-medical-expenditure-panel-su-2/

 

2014 Epidemiology and Prevention, Nutrition, Physical Activity and Metabolism Conference: San Francisco, Ca. Conference Dates: San Francisco, CA 3/18-21, 2014

Reporter: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2014/02/26/2014-epidemiology-and-prevention-nutrition-physical-activity-and-metabolism-conference-san-francisco-ca-conference-dates-san-francisco-ca-318-21-2014/

 

2014 High Blood Pressure Research Conference, 9/9 – 9/12, 2014 — Hilton SF Union Square, San Francisco, CA

Reporter: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2014/02/24/2014-high-blood-pressure-research-conference-99-912-2014-hilton-sf-union-square-san-francisco-ca/

 

Females and Non-Atherosclerotic Plaque: Spontaneous Coronary Artery Dissection – New Insights from Research and DNA Ongoing Study

Reporter: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2014/02/12/female-and-non-atherosclerotic-plaque-spontaneous-coronary-artery-dissection-new-insights-from-research-and-dna-ongoing-study/

 

Hypertension – JNC 8 Guideline: Henry R. Black, MD, Michael A. Weber, MD and Raymond R. Townsend, MD

Reporter: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2014/02/12/hypertension-jnc-8-guideline-henry-r-black-md-michael-a-weber-md-and-raymond-r-townsend-md/

 

Why Don’t You Trust Generic Drugs as Much as Brand Name …

Reporter: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2014/02/10/why-dont-you-trust-generic-drugs-as-much-as-brand-name/

 

National Trends, 2005 – 2011: Adverse-event Rates Declined among Patients Hospitalized for Acute Myocardial Infarction or Congestive Heart Failure

Reporter: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2014/02/04/national-trends-2005-2011-adverse-event-rates-declined-among-patients-hospitalized-for-acute-myocardial-infarction-or-congestive-heart-failure/

 

Is Pharmacogenetic-based Dosing of Warfarin Superior for Anticoagulation Control?

Curator: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2014/02/04/is-pharmacogenetic-based-dosing-of-warfarin-superior-for-anticoagulation-control/

 

Prolonged Wakefulness: Lack of Sufficient Duration of Sleep as a Risk Factor for Cardiovascular Diseases – Indications for Cardiovascular Chrono-therapeutics

Curator: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2014/02/02/prolonged-wakefulness-lack-of-sufficient-duration-of-sleep-as-a-risk-factor-for-cardiovascular-diseases-indications-for-cardiovascular-chrono-therapeutics/

 

Testosterone Therapy for Idiopathic Hypogonadotrophic Hypogonadism has Beneficial and Deleterious Effects on Cardiovascular Risk Factors

Curator: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2014/01/30/testosterone-therapy-for-idiopathic-hypogonadotrophic-hypogonadism-has-beneficial-and-deleterious-effects-on-cardiovascular-risk-factors/

 

Calcium and Cardiovascular Diseases: A Series of Twelve Articles in Advanced Cardiology

Curator: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2014/01/28/calcium-and-cardiovascular-diseases-a-series-of-twelve-articles-in-advanced-cardiology/

 

Acute Myocardial Infarction: Curations of Cardiovascular Original Research – A Bibliography

Curator: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2014/01/22/acute-myocardial-infarction-curations-of-cardiovascular-original-research-a-bibliography/

 

On-Hours vs Off-Hours: Presentation to ER with Acute Myocardial Infarction – Lower Survival Rate if Off-Hours

Reporter: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2014/01/22/on-hours-vs-off-hours-presentation-to-er-with-acute-myocardial-infarction-lower-survival-rate-if-off-hours/

 

2014 Winter in New England: The Effect of Record Cold Temperatures on Cardiovascular Diseases

Curator: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2014/01/21/2014-winter-in-new-england-the-effect-of-record-cold-temperatures-on-cardiovascular-diseases/

 

Voices from the Cleveland Clinic: On the New Lipid Guidelines and On the ACC/AHA Risk Calculator

Reporter: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2014/01/21/voices-from-the-cleveland-clinic-on-the-new-lipid-guidelines-and-on-the-accaha-risk-calculator/

 

Is it Hypertension or Physical Inactivity: Cardiovascular Risk and Mortality – New results in 3/2013

Reporter: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2014/01/19/is-it-hypertension-or-physical-inactivity-cardiovascular-risk-and-mortality-new-results-in-32013/

 

Regeneration: Cardiac System (cardiomyogenesis) and Vasculature (angiogenesis)

Curator: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2014/01/15/regeneration-cardiac-system-and-vasculature

 

Conceived: NEW Definition for Co-Curation in Medical Research

Curator: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2014/01/04/conceived-new-definition-for-co-curation-in-medical-research/

 

The Young Surgeon and The Retired Pathologist: On Science, Medicine and HealthCare Policy – The Best Writers Among the WRITERS

Curator: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2013/12/10/the-young-surgeon-and-the-retired-pathologist-on-science-medicine-and-healthcare-policy-best-writers-among-the-writers/

 

Diabetes-risk Forecasts: Serum Calcium in Upper-Normal Range (>2.5 mmol/L) as a New Biomarker

Curator: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN 

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2013/09/25/diabetes-risk-forecasts-serum-calcium-in-upper-normal-range-2-5-mmoll-as-a-new-biomarker/

 

Do Novel Anticoagulants Affect the PT/INR? The Cases of XARELTO (rivaroxaban) or PRADAXA (dabigatran)

Curators: Lal, V., Justin D. Pearlman, MD, PhD, FACC and Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2013/09/23/do-novel-anticoagulants-affect-the-ptinr-the-cases-of-xarelto-rivaroxaban-and-pradaxa-dabigatran/

 

Calcium-Channel Blocker, Calcium Release-related Contractile Dysfunction (Ryanopathy) and Calcium as Neurotransmitter Sensor

Curators: Justin D. Pearlman, MD, PhD, FACC, Larry H. Bernstein, MD FCAP and Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2013/09/16/calcium-channel-blocker-calcium-as-neurotransmitter-sensor-and-calcium-release-related-contractile-dysfunction-ryanopathy/

 

Disruption of Calcium HomeostasisCardiomyocytes and Vascular Smooth Muscle Cells: The Cardiac and Cardiovascular Calcium Signaling Mechanism

Curators: Larry H. Bernstein, MD FCAP, Justin D. Pearlman, MD, PhD, FACC, and Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2013/09/12/disruption-of-calcium-homeostasis-cardiomyocytes-and-vascular-smooth-muscle-cells-the-cardiac-and-cardiovascular-calcium-signaling-mechanism/

 

Synaptotagmin functions as a Calcium Sensor: How Calcium Ions Regulate the fusion of vesicles with cell membranes during Neurotransmission

Curators:  Larry H. Bernstein, MD FCAP and Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2013/09/10/synaptotagmin-functions-as-a-calcium-sensor-how-calcium-ions-regulate-the-fusion-of-vesicles-with-cell-membranes-during-neurotransmission/

 

Cardiac Contractility & Myocardium Performance: Ventricular Arrhythmias and Non-ischemic Heart Failure – Therapeutic Implications for Cardiomyocyte Ryanopathy (Calcium Release-related Contractile Dysfunction) and Catecholamine Responses

Curators: Justin D. Pearlman, MD, PhD, FACC, Larry H. Bernstein, MD FCAP and Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2013/08/28/cardiac-contractility-myocardium-performance-ventricular-arrhythmias-and-non-ischemic-heart-failure-therapeutic-implications-for-cardiomyocyte-ryanopathy-calcium-release-related-contractile/

 

Cardiovascular Original Research: Cases in Methodology Design for Content Curation and Co-Curation

Curator: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2013/07/29/cardiovascular-original-research-cases-in-methodology-design-for-content-curation-and-co-curation/

 

Heart Transplant (HT) Indication for Heart Failure (HF): Procedure Outcomes and Research on HF, HT @ Two Nation’s Leading HF & HT Centers

Curator: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN 

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2013/07/09/research-programs-george-m-linda-h-kaufman-center-for-heart-failure-cleveland-clinic/

 

Congenital Heart Disease (CHD) at Birth and into Adulthood: The Role of Spontaneous Mutations

Curator: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN 

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2013/06/09/congenital-heart-disease-at-birth-and-into-adulthood-the-role-of-spontaneous-mutations-the-genes-and-the-pathways/

 

Clinical Indications for Use of Inhaled Nitric Oxide (iNO) in the Adult Patient Market: Clinical Outcomes after Use, Therapy Demand and Cost of Care

Curator: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN 

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2013/06/03/clinical-indications-for-use-of-inhaled-nitric-oxide-ino-in-the-adult-patient-market-clinical-outcomes-after-use-therapy-demand-and-cost-of-care/

 

Inhaled Nitric Oxide in Adults: Clinical Trials and Meta Analysis Studies – Recent Findings

Curator: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN 

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2013/06/02/inhaled-nitric-oxide-in-adults-with-acute-respiratory-distress-syndrome/

 

Imaging Biomarker for Arterial Stiffness: Pathways in Pharmacotherapy for Hypertension and Hypercholesterolemia Management

Curators: Justin D. Pearlman, MD, PhD, FACC and Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN 

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2013/05/24/imaging-biomarker-for-arterial-stiffness-pathways-in-pharmacotherapy-for-hypertension-and-hypercholesterolemia-management/

 

Synthetic Biology: On Advanced Genome Interpretation for Gene Variants and Pathways: What is the Genetic Base of Atherosclerosis and Loss of Arterial Elasticity with Aging

Curator: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN 

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2013/05/17/synthetic-biology-on-advanced-genome-interpretation-for-gene-variants-and-pathways-what-is-the-genetic-base-of-atherosclerosis-and-loss-of-arterial-elasticity-with-aging/

 

Diagnosis of Cardiovascular Disease, Treatment and Prevention: Current & Predicted Cost of Care and the Promise of Individualized Medicine Using Clinical Decision Support Systems

Curators: Justin D. Pearlman, MD, PhD, FACC, Larry H. Bernstein, MD, FCAP and Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2013/05/15/diagnosis-of-cardiovascular-disease-treatment-and-prevention-current-predicted-cost-of-care-and-the-promise-of-individualized-medicine-using-clinical-decision-support-systems-2/

 

Gene, Meis1, Regulates the Heart’s Ability to Regenerate after Injuries.

Curator: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN 

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2013/05/03/gene-meis1-regulates-the-hearts-ability-to-regenerate-after-injuries/

 

Prostacyclin and Nitric Oxide: Adventures in Vascular Biology – A Tale of Two Mediators

Curator: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN 

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2013/04/30/prostacyclin-and-nitric-oxide-adventures-in-vascular-biology-a-tale-of-two-mediators/

 

Genetics of Conduction Disease: Atrioventricular (AV) Conduction Disease (block): Gene Mutations – Transcription, Excitability, and Energy Homeostasis

Curator: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN 

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2013/04/28/genetics-of-conduction-disease-atrioventricular-av-conduction-disease-block-gene-mutations-transcription-excitability-and-energy-homeostasis/

 

Economic Toll of Heart Failure in the US: Forecasting the Impact of Heart Failure in the United States – A Policy Statement From the American Heart Association

Curator: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN 

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2013/04/25/economic-toll-of-heart-failure-in-the-us-forecasting-the-impact-of-heart-failure-in-the-united-states-a-policy-statement-from-the-american-heart-association/

 

Harnessing New Players in Atherosclerosis to Treat Heart Disease

Curator: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN 

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2013/04/25/harnessing-new-players-in-atherosclerosis-to-treat-heart-disease/

 

Cholesteryl Ester Transfer Protein (CETP) Inhibitor: Potential of Anacetrapib to treat Atherosclerosis and CAD

Curator: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN 

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2013/04/07/cholesteryl-ester-transfer-protein-cetp-inhibitor-potential-of-anacetrapib-to-treat-atherosclerosis-and-cad/

 

Hypertriglyceridemia concurrent Hyperlipidemia: Vertical Density Gradient Ultracentrifugation a Better Test to Prevent Undertreatment of High-Risk Cardiac Patients

Curator: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN 

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2013/04/04/hypertriglyceridemia-concurrent-hyperlipidemia-vertical-density-gradient-ultracentrifugation-a-better-test-to-prevent-undertreatment-of-high-risk-cardiac-patients/

 

Fight against Atherosclerotic Cardiovascular Disease: A Biologics not a Small Molecule – Recombinant Human lecithin-cholesterol acyltransferase (rhLCAT) attracted AstraZeneca to acquire AlphaCore

Curator: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN 

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2013/04/03/fight-against-atherosclerotic-cardiovascular-disease-a-biologics-not-a-small-molecule-recombinant-human-lecithin-cholesterol-acyltransferase-rhlcat-attracted-astrazeneca-to-acquire-alphacore/

 

High-Density Lipoprotein (HDL): An Independent Predictor of Endothelial Function & Atherosclerosis, A Modulator, An Agonist, A Biomarker for Cardiovascular Risk

Curator: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN 

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2013/03/31/high-density-lipoprotein-hdl-an-independent-predictor-of-endothelial-function-artherosclerosis-a-modulator-an-agonist-a-biomarker-for-cardiovascular-risk/ 

 

Genomics & Genetics of Cardiovascular Disease Diagnoses: A Literature Survey of AHA’s Circulation Cardiovascular Genetics, 3/2010 – 3/2013

Curators: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN and Larry H. Bernstein, MD, FCAP

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2013/03/07/genomics-genetics-of-cardiovascular-disease-diagnoses-a-literature-survey-of-ahas-circulation-cardiovascular-genetics-32010-32013/

 

The Heart: Vasculature Protection – A Concept-based Pharmacological Therapy including THYMOSIN

Curator: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN 

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2013/02/28/the-heart-vasculature-protection-a-concept-based-pharmacological-therapy-including-thymosin/

 

Thymosin References

Curator: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2013/02/27/thymosin-references/

 

Arteriogenesis and Cardiac Repair: Two Biomaterials – Injectable Thymosin beta4 and Myocardial Matrix Hydrogel

Curator: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN 

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2013/02/27/arteriogenesis-and-cardiac-repair-two-biomaterials-injectable-thymosin-beta4-and-myocardial-matrix-hydrogel/

 

PCI Outcomes, Increased Ischemic Risk associated with Elevated Plasma Fibrinogen not Platelet Reactivity

Reporter: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2013/01/10/pci-outcomes-increased-ischemic-risk-associated-with-elevated-plasma-fibrinogen-not-platelet-reactivity/

 

Heart Renewal by pre-existing Cardiomyocytes: Source of New Heart Cell Growth Discovered

Reporter: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2012/12/23/heart-renewal-by-pre-existing-cardiomyocytes-source-of-new-heart-cell-growth-discovered/

 

Special Considerations in Blood Lipoproteins, Viscosity, Assessment and Treatment

Curators: Larry H. Bernstein and Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2012/11/28/special-considerations-in-blood-lipoproteins-viscosity-assessment-and-treatment/

 

Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor (PPAR-gamma) Receptors Activation: PPARγ transrepression for Angiogenesis in Cardiovascular Disease and PPARγ transactivation for Treatment of Diabetes

Curator: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN 

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2012/11/13/peroxisome-proliferator-activated-receptor-ppar-gamma-receptors-activation-pparγ-transrepression-for-angiogenesis-in-cardiovascular-disease-and-pparγ-transactivation-for-treatment-of-dia/

 

Cardiovascular Risk Inflammatory Marker: Risk Assessment for Coronary Heart Disease and Ischemic Stroke – Atherosclerosis.

Reporter: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2012/10/30/cardiovascular-risk-inflammatory-marker-risk-assessment-for-coronary-heart-disease-and-ischemic-stroke-atherosclerosis/

 

Clinical Trials Results for Endothelin System: Pathophysiological role in Chronic Heart Failure, Acute Coronary Syndromes and MI – Marker of Disease Severity or Genetic Determination?

Curator: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN 

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2012/10/19/clinical-trials-results-for-endothelin-system-pathophysiological-role-in-chronic-heart-failure-acute-coronary-syndromes-and-mi-marker-of-disease-severity-or-genetic-determination/

 

Sustained Cardiac Atrial Fibrillation: Management Strategies by Director of the Arrhythmia Service and Electrophysiology Lab at The Johns Hopkins Hospital

Reporter: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2012/10/16/sustained-cardiac-atrial-fibrillation-management-strategies-by-director-of-the-arrhythmia-service-and-electrophysiology-lab-at-the-johns-hopkins-hospital/

 

Endothelin Receptors in Cardiovascular Diseases: The Role of eNOS Stimulation

Curator: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN 

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2012/10/04/endothelin-receptors-in-cardiovascular-diseases-the-role-of-enos-stimulation/

 

Inhibition of ET-1, ETA and ETA-ETB, Induction of NO production, stimulation of eNOS and Treatment Regime with PPAR-gamma agonists (TZD): cEPCs Endogenous Augmentation for Cardiovascular Risk Reduction – A Bibliography

Curator: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN 

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2012/10/04/inhibition-of-et-1-eta-and-eta-etb-induction-of-no-production-and-stimulation-of-enos-and-treatment-regime-with-ppar-gamma-agonists-tzd-cepcs-endogenous-augmentation-for-cardiovascular-risk-reduc/

Positioning a Therapeutic Concept for Endogenous Augmentation of cEPCs — Therapeutic Indications for Macrovascular Disease: Coronary, Cerebrovascular and Peripheral

Curator: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2012/08/29/positioning-a-therapeutic-concept-for-endogenous-augmentation-of-cepcs-therapeutic-indications-for-macrovascular-disease-coronary-cerebrovascular-and-peripheral/ 

 

Cardiovascular Outcomes: Function of circulating Endothelial Progenitor Cells (cEPCs): Exploring Pharmaco-therapy targeted at Endogenous Augmentation of cEPCs

Curator: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN 

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2012/08/28/cardiovascular-outcomes-function-of-circulating-endothelial-progenitor-cells-cepcs-exploring-pharmaco-therapy-targeted-at-endogenous-augmentation-of-cepcs/

 

Endothelial Dysfunction, Diminished Availability of cEPCs, Increasing CVD Risk for Macrovascular Disease – Therapeutic Potential of cEPCs

Curator: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN 

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2012/08/27/endothelial-dysfunction-diminished-availability-of-cepcs-increasing-cvd-risk-for-macrovascular-disease-therapeutic-potential-of-cepcs/

 

Vascular Medicine and Biology: Classification of Fast Acting Therapy for Patients at High Risk for Macrovascular Events – Macrovascular Disease – Therapeutic Potential of cEPCs

Curator: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2012/08/24/vascular-medicine-and-biology-classification-of-fast-acting-therapy-for-patients-at-high-risk-for-macrovascular-events-macrovascular-disease-therapeutic-potential-of-cepcs/

 

 

Ethical Considerations in Studying Drug Safety — The Institute of Medicine Report

Reporter: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2012/08/23/ethical-considerations-in-studying-drug-safety-the-institute-of-medicine-report/

 

Cardiac Arrhythmias: A Risk for Extreme Performance Athletes

Reporter: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2012/08/08/cardiac-arrhythmias-a-risk-for-extreme-performance-athletes/

 

Biosimilars: Intellectual Property Creation and Protection by Pioneer and by Biosimilar Manufacturers

Curator: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN 

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2012/07/30/biosimilars-intellectual-property-creation-and-protection-by-pioneer-and-by-biosimilar-manufacturers/

 

Biosimilars: Financials 2012 vs. 2008

Curator: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN 

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2012/07/30/biosimilars-financials-2012-vs-2008/

 

Biosimilars: CMC Issues and Regulatory Requirements

Curator: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN 

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2012/07/29/biosimilars-cmc-issues-and-regulatory-requirements/

 

Cardiovascular Disease (CVD) and the Role of agent alternatives in endothelial Nitric Oxide Synthase (eNOS) Activation and Nitric Oxide Production

Curator: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN 

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2012/07/19/cardiovascular-disease-cvd-and-the-role-of-agent-alternatives-in-endothelial-nitric-oxide-synthase-enos-activation-and-nitric-oxide-production/

 

Resident-cell-based Therapy in Human Ischaemic Heart Disease: Evolution in the PROMISE of Thymosin beta4 for Cardiac Repair

Curator: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN 

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2012/04/30/93/

 

Triple Antihypertensive Combination Therapy Significantly Lowers Blood Pressure in Hard-to-Treat Patients with Hypertension and Diabetes

Curator: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN 

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2012/05/29/445/

 

Macrovascular Disease – Therapeutic Potential of cEPCs: Reduction Methods for CV Risk

Curator: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN 

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2012/07/02/macrovascular-disease-therapeutic-potential-of-cepcs-reduction-methods-for-cv-risk/

 

Mitochondria Dysfunction and Cardiovascular Disease – Mitochondria: More than just the “powerhouse of the cell”

Curator: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN 

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2012/07/09/mitochondria-more-than-just-the-powerhouse-of-the-cell/

 

Bystolic’s generic Nebivolol – positive effect on circulating Endothelial Progenitor Cells endogenous augmentation

Curator: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN 

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2012/07/16/bystolics-generic-nebivolol-positive-effect-on-circulating-endothilial-progrnetor-cells-endogenous-augmentation/

Lev-Ari, A. Heart Vasculature (2007) Regeneration and Protection of Coronary Artery Endothelium and Smooth Muscle: A Concept-based Pharmacological Therapy of a Combined Three Drug Regimen.

Bouve College of Health Sciences, Northeastern University, Boston, MA 02115

 

Lev-Ari, A. & Abourjaily, P. (2006a) “An Investigation of the Potential of circulating Endothelial Progenitor Cells (cEPC) as a Therapeutic Target for Pharmacologic Therapy Design for Cardiovascular Risk Reduction.”

  • Part IMacrovascular Disease – Therapeutic Potential of cEPCs – Reduction methods for CV risk.
  • Part II:(2006b) Therapeutic Strategy for cEPCs Endogenous Augmentation: A Concept-based Treatment Protocol for a Combined Three Drug Regimen.
  • Part III: (2006c)Biomarker for Therapeutic Targets of Cardiovascular Risk Reduction by cEPCs Endogenous Augmentation using New Combination Drug Therapy of Three Drug Classes and Several Drug Indications.

Northeastern University, Boston, MA 02115

 

Curator: Medical Research – 557 articles in Books

Editorial & Publication of Articles in e-Books by Leaders in Pharmaceutical Business Intelligence: Contributions of Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2014/10/16/editorial-publication-of-articles-in-e-books-by-leaders-in-pharmaceutical-business-intelligence-contributions-of-aviva-lev-ari-phd-rn/

 

 

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Curation, HealthCare System in the US, and Calcium Signaling Effects on Cardiac Contraction, Heart Failure, and Atrial Fibrillation, and the Relationship of Calcium Release at the Myoneural Junction to Beta Adrenergic Release

Curation, HealthCare System in the US, and Calcium Signaling Effects on Cardiac Contraction, Heart Failure, and Atrial Fibrillation, and the Relationship of Calcium Release at the Myoneural Junction to Beta Adrenergic Release

Curator and e-book Contributor: Larry H. Bernstein, MD, FCAP
Curator and BioMedicine e-Series Editor-in-Chief: Aviva Lev Ari, PhD, RN

and 

Content Consultant to Six-Volume e-SERIES A: Cardiovascular Diseases: Justin Pearlman, MD, PhD, FACC

This portion summarises what we have covered and is now familiar to the reader.  There are three related topics, and an extension of this embraces other volumes and chapters before and after this reading.  This approach to the document has advantages over the multiple authored textbooks that are and have been pervasive as a result of the traditional publication technology.  It has been stated by the founder of ScoopIt, that amount of time involved is considerably less than required for the original publications used, but the organization and construction is a separate creative process.  In these curations we amassed on average five articles in one curation, to which, two or three curators contributed their views.  There were surprises, and there were unfulfilled answers along the way.  The greatest problem that is being envisioned is the building a vision that bridges and unmasks the hidden “dark matter” between the now declared “OMICS”, to get a more real perspective on what is conjecture and what is actionable.  This is in some respects unavoidable because the genome is an alphabet that is matched to the mino acid sequences of proteins, which themselves are three dimensional drivers of sequences of metabolic reactions that can be altered by the accumulation of substrates in critical placements, and in addition, the proteome has functional proteins whose activity is a regulatory function and not easily identified.  In the end, we have to have a practical conception, recognizing the breadth of evolutionary change, and make sense of what we have, while searching for more.

We introduced the content as follows:

1. We introduce the concept of curation in the digital context, and it’s application to medicine and related scientific discovery.

Topics were chosen were used to illustrate this process in the form of a pattern, which is mostly curation, but is significantly creative, as it emerges in the context of this e-book.

  • Alternative solutions in Treatment of Heart Failure (HF), medical devices, biomarkers and agent efficacy is handled all in one chapter.
  • PCI for valves vs Open heart Valve replacement
  • PDA and Complications of Surgery — only curation could create the picture of this unique combination of debate, as exemplified of Endarterectomy (CEA) vs Stenting the Carotid Artery (CAS), ischemic leg, renal artery stenosis.

2. The etiology, or causes, of cardiovascular diseases consist of mechanistic explanations for dysfunction relating to the heart or vascular system. Every one of a long list of abnormalities has a path that explains the deviation from normal. With the completion of the analysis of the human genome, in principle all of the genetic basis for function and dysfunction are delineated. While all genes are identified, and the genes code for all the gene products that constitute body functions, there remains more unknown than known.

3. Human genome, and in combination with improved imaging methods, genomics offers great promise in changing the course of disease and aging.

4. If we tie together Part 1 and Part 2, there is ample room for considering clinical outcomes based on individual and organizational factors for best performance. This can really only be realized with considerable improvement in information infrastructure, which has miles to go.

Curation

Curation is an active filtering of the web’s  and peer reviewed literature found by such means – immense amount of relevant and irrelevant content. As a result content may be disruptive. However, in doing good curation, one does more than simply assign value by presentation of creative work in any category. Great curators comment and share experience across content, authors and themes.
Great curators may see patterns others don’t, or may challenge or debate complex and apparently conflicting points of view.  Answers to specifically focused questions comes from the hard work of many in laboratory settings creatively establishing answers to definitive questions, each a part of the larger knowledge-base of reference. There are those rare “Einstein’s” who imagine a whole universe, unlike the three blindmen of the Sufi tale.  One held the tail, the other the trunk, the other the ear, and they all said this is an elephant!
In my reading, I learn that the optimal ratio of curation to creation may be as high as 90% curation to 10% creation. Creating content is expensive. Curation, by comparison, is much less expensive.  The same source says “Scoop.it is my content marketing testing “sandbox”. In sharing, he says that comments provide the framework for what and how content is shared.

Healthcare and Affordable Care Act

We enter year 2014 with the Affordable Care Act off to a slow start because of the implementation of the internet signup requiring a major repair, which is, unfortunately, as expected for such as complex job across the US, and with many states unwilling to participate.  But several states – California, Connecticut, and Kentucky – had very effective state designed signups, separate from the federal system.  There has been a very large rush and an extension to sign up. There are many features that we can take note of:

1. The healthcare system needed changes because we have the most costly system, are endowed with advanced technology, and we have inexcusable outcomes in several domains of care, including, infant mortality, and prenatal care – but not in cardiology.

2. These changes that are notable are:

  • The disparities in outcome are magnified by a large disparity in highest to lowest income bracket.
  • This is also reflected in educational status, and which plays out in childhood school lunches, and is also affected by larger class size and cutbacks in school programs.
  • This is not  helped by a large paralysis in the two party political system and the three legs of government unable to deal with work and distraction.
  • Unemployment is high, and the banking and home construction, home buying, and rental are in realignment, but interest rates are problematic.

3.  The  medical care system is affected by the issues above, but the complexity is not to be discounted.

  •  The medical schools are unable at this time to provide the influx of new physicians needed, so we depend on a major influx of physicians from other countries
  • The technology for laboratories, proteomic and genomic as well as applied medical research is rejuvenating the practice in cardiology more rapidly than any other field.
  • In fields that are imaging related the life cycle of instruments is shorter than the actual lifetime use of the instruments, which introduces a shortening of ROI.
  • Hospitals are consolidating into large consortia in order to maintain a more viable system for referral of specialty cases, and also is centralizing all terms of business related to billing.
  • There is reduction in independent physician practices that are being incorporated into the hospital enterprise with Part B billing under the Physician Organization – as in Partners in Greater Boston, with the exception of “concierge” medical practices.
  • There is consolidation of specialty laboratory services within state, with only the most specialized testing going out of state (Quest, LabCorp, etc.)
  • Medicaid is expanded substantially under the new ACA.
  • The federal government as provider of services is reducing the number of contractors for – medical devices, diabetes self-testing, etc.
  • The current rearrangements seeks to provide a balance between capital expenses and fixed labor costs that it can control, reduce variable costs (reagents, pharmaceutical), and to take in more patients with less delay and better performance – defined by outside agencies.

Cardiology, Genomics, and calcium ion signaling and ion-channels in cardiomyocyte function in health and disease – including heart failure, rhythm abnormalities, and the myoneural release of neurotransmitter at the vesicle junction.

This portion is outlined as follows:

2.1 Human Genome: Congenital Etiological Sources of Cardiovascular Disease

2.2 The Role of Calcium in Health and Disease

2.3 Vasculature and Myocardium: Diagnosing the Conditions of Disease

Genomics & Genetics of Cardiovascular Disease Diagnoses

actin cytoskeleton

wall stress, ventricular workload, contractile reserve

Genetic Base of Atherosclerosis and Loss of Arterial Elasticity with Aging

calcium and actin skeleton, signaling, cell motility

hypertension & vascular compliance

Genetics of Conduction Disease

Ca+ stimulated exostosis: calmodulin & PKC (neurotransmitter)

complications & MVR

disruption of Ca2+ homeostasis cardiac & vascular smooth muscle

synaptotagmin as Ca2+ sensor & vesicles

atherosclerosis & ion channels


It is increasingly clear that there are mutations that underlie many human diseases, and this is true of the cardiovascular system.  The mutations are mistakes in the insertion of a purine nucleotide, which may or may not have any consequence.  This is why the associations that are being discovered in research require careful validation, and even require demonstration in “models” before pursuing the design of pharmacological “target therapy”.  The genomics in cardiovascular disease involves very serious congenital disorders that are asserted early in life, but the effects of and development of atherosclerosis involving large and medium size arteries has a slow progression and is not dominated by genomic expression.  This is characterized by loss of arterial elasticity. In addition there is the development of heart failure, which involves the cardiomyocyte specifically.  The emergence of regenerative medical interventions, based on pleuripotent inducible stem cell therapy is developing rapidly as an intervention in this sector.

Finally, it is incumbent on me to call attention to the huge contribution that research on calcium (Ca2+) signaling has made toward the understanding of cardiac contraction and to the maintenance of the heart rhythm.  The heart is a syncytium, different than skeletal and smooth muscle, and the innervation is by the vagus nerve, which has terminal endings at vesicles which discharge at the myocyte junction.  The heart specifically has calmodulin kinase CaMK II, and it has been established that calmodulin is involved in the calcium spark that triggers contraction.  That is only part of the story.  Ion transport occurs into or out of the cell, the latter termed exostosis.  Exostosis involves CaMK II and pyruvate kinase (PKC), and they have independent roles.  This also involves K+-Na+-ATPase.  The cytoskeleton is also discussed, but the role of aquaporin in water transport appears elsewhere, as the transport of water between cells.  When we consider the Gibbs-Donnan equilibrium, which precedes the current work by a century, we recall that there is an essential balance between extracellular Na+ + Ca2+ and the intracellular K+ + Mg2+, and this has been superceded by an incompletely defined relationship between ions that are cytoplasmic and those that are mitochondrial.  The glass is half full!

 

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The Cost to Value Conundrum in Cardiovascular Healthcare Provision

The Cost to Value Conundrum in Cardiovascular Healthcare Provision

Author: Larry H. Bernstein, MD, FCAP

Article ID #98: The Cost to Value Conundrum in Cardiovascular Healthcare Provision. Published on 1/1/2014

WordCloud Image Produced by Adam Tubman

I write this introduction to Volume 2 of the e-series on Cardiovascular Diseases, which curates the basic structure and physiology of the heart, the vasculature, and related structures, e.g., the kidney, with respect to:

1. Pathogenesis
2. Diagnosis
3. Treatment

Curation is an introductory portion to Volume Two, which is necessary to introduce the methodological design used to create the following articles. More needs not to be discussed about the methodology, which will become clear, if only that the content curated is changing based on success or failure of both diagnostic and treatment technology availability, as well as the systems needed to support the ongoing advances.  Curation requires:

  • meaningful selection,
  • enrichment, and
  • sharing combining sources and
  • creation of new synnthesis

Curators have to create a new perspective or idea on top of the existing media which supports the content in the original. The curator has to select from the myriad upon myriad options available, to re-share and critically view the work. A search can be overwhelming in size of the output, but the curator has to successfully pluck the best material straight out of that noise.

Part 1 is a highly important treatment that is not technological, but about the system now outdated to support our healthcare system, the most technolog-ically advanced in the world, with major problems in the availability of care related to economic disparities.  It is not about technology, per se, but about how we allocate healthcare resources, about individuals’ roles in a not full list of lifestyle maintenance options for self-care, and about the important advances emerging out of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), impacting enormously on Medicaid, which depends on state-level acceptance, on community hospital, ambulatory, and home-care or hospice restructuring, which includes the reduction of management overhead by the formation of regional healthcare alliances, the incorporation of physicians into hospital-based practices (with the hospital collecting and distributing the Part B reimbursement to the physician, with “performance-based” targets for privileges and payment – essential to the success of an Accountable Care Organization (AC)).  One problem that ACA has definitively address is the elimination of the exclusion of patients based on preconditions.  One problem that has been left unresolved is the continuing existence of private policies that meet financial capabilities of the contract to provide, but which provide little value to the “purchaser” of care.  This is a holdout that persists in for-profit managed care as an option.  A physician response to the new system of care, largely fostered by a refusal to accept Medicaid, is the formation of direct physician-patient contracted care without an intermediary.

In this respect, the problem is not simple, but is resolvable.  A proposal for improved economic stability has been prepared by Edward Ingram. A concern for American families and businesses is substantially addressed in a macroeconomic design concept, so that financial services like housing, government, and business finance, savings and pensions, boosting confidence at every level giving everyone a better chance of success in planning their personal savings and lifetime and business finances.

http://macro-economic-design.blogspot.com/p/book.html

Part 2 is a collection of scientific articles on the current advances in cardiac care by the best trained physicians the world has known, with mastery of the most advanced vascular instrumentation for medical or surgical interventions, the latest diagnostic ultrasound and imaging tools that are becoming outdated before the useful lifetime of the capital investment has been completed.  If we tie together Part 1 and Part 2, there is ample room for considering  clinical outcomes based on individual and organizational factors for best performance. This can really only be realized with considerable improvement in information infrastructure, which has miles to go.  Why should this be?  Because for generations of IT support systems, they are historically focused on billing and have made insignificant inroads into the front-end needs of the clinical staff.

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Larry H. Bernstein, MD, FCAP, Reporter and Curator

http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2013-12-15/larryhbern/Stem cells at a closer view/

There are two bloggers who have brought a clear vision to the growing importance of Pleuripotential stem cell research, applications, and noted risks.  They are M Buratov and David O’Connell.
I repost  some work that needs more attention.  The technology has improved, and there are a number of successful applications.  The treatment of the cells, and the ability to put them on a stable and nontoxic resorbable matrix is a bioengineering advance.

Growing Skeletal Muscle in the Laboratory

Skeletal muscle – that type of voluntary muscle that allows movement – has proven difficult to grow in the laboratory. While particular cells can be differentiated into skeletal muscle cells, forming a coherent, structurally sound skeletal muscle is a tough nut to crack from a research perspective. Another problem dogging muscle research is the difficulty growing new muscle in patients with muscle diseases such as muscular dystrophy or other types of disorders that weaken and degrade skeletal muscle. Now research groups at the Boston Children’s Hospital Stem Cell Program have reported that they can boost the muscle mass and even reverse the disease of mice that suffer from a type of murine muscular dystrophy. To do this, this group use a combination of three different compounds that were identified in a rapid culture system.
This ingenious rapid culture system uses
  • the cells of zebrafish (Danio rerio) embryos to screen for these muscle-inducing compounds.
These single cells are placed into the well of a 96-well plate, and then treated with various compounds to determine if those chemical induce the muscle formation. To facilitate this process,
  • the zebrafish embryo cells express a very special marker that consists of the myosin light polypeptide 2 gene fused to a red-colored protein called “cherry.”
When cells become muscle, they express the myosin light polypeptide 2 gene at high levels. Therefore, any embryo cell that differentiates into muscle should glow a red color.
zebrafish-embryos-glow-red  myosin light polypeptide 2 gene
Zebrafish embryos myosin light polypeptide 2 gene fused to a red-colored protein called “cherry.”
(A) myf5-GFP;mylz2-mCherry double-transgenic expression recapitulates expression of the endogenous genes. myf5-GFP is first detected at the 11-somite stage. mylz2-mCherry expression is not observed until 32 hpf. Scale bars represent 200 mm.
(B) myf5-GFP;mylz2-mCherry embryos were dissociated at the oblong stage and cultured in zESC medium. Images were taken 48 hr after plating. Scale bars represent 250 mm.
Once a cocktail of muscle-inducing chemicals were identified in this assay, those same chemicals were used to treat induced pluripotent stem cells made from cells taken from patients with muscular dystrophy.  Those iPSCs were treated with the combination of chemicals identified in the zebrafish embryo screen as muscle inducing agents.
zebrafish-embryo-culture-system
Zebrafish embryo culture system
The results were outstanding.  Leonard Zon from the Division of Hematology/Oncology, Children’s Hospital Boston and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and his colleagues showed that
a combination of basic Fibroblast Growth Factor, an  adenylyl cyclase activator called forskolin, and the GSK3β inhibitor BIO
  • induced skeletal muscle differentiation in human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs).
Furthermore, these muscle cells produced
  • engraftable myogenic progenitors that contributed to muscle repair
    • when implanted into mice with a rodent form of muscular dystrophy.
 Representative hematoxylin and eosin staining (H&E) images and immunostaining on TA sections of preinjured NSG mice injected with 1 3 105 iPSCs at day 14 of differentiation. Muscles injected with BJ, 00409, or 05400 iPSC-derived cells stain positively for human d-Sarcoglycan protein (red). Fibers were counterstained with Laminin (green). No staining is observed in PBS-injected mice or when 00409 fibroblast cells were transplanted. Because the area of human cell engraftment could not be specifically distinguished on H&E stained sections, which must be processed differently from sections for immunostaining, the H&E images shown do not represent the same muscle region as that shown in immunofluorescence images. Scale bars represent 100 mm, n = 3 per sample.
 cultured-muscle-engraftment
Zon hopes that clinical trials can being soon in order to translate these remarkable results into patients with muscle loss within the next several years.  Zon and his co-workers are also screening compounds to address other types of disorders beyond muscular dystrophy.
This paper represents the application of shear and utter genius.  However, there is one caveat.  The mice into which the muscles were injected were immunodeficient mice who immune systems are unable to reject transplanted tissues.  In human patients with muscular dystrophy,
  • an immune response against dystrophin, the defective protein, has been an enduring problem (for a review of this, see T. Okada and S. Takeda, Pharmaceuticals (Basel). 2013 Jun 27;6(7):813-836).
While there have been some technological developments that might circumvent this problem,
  • transplanting large quantities of muscle cells might be beyond the pale.
Muscular dystrophy results from disruption of an important junction between the muscle and substratum to which the muscle is secured.  This connection is mediated by
  • the “dystrophin-glycoprotein complex.”
Structural disruptions of this complex (shown below) lead to
  • unanchored muscle that cannot contract properly, and
    • eventually atrophies and degrades.

pharmaceuticals-06-00813-g001  Dystrophin-glycoprotein complex

Dystrophin-glycoprotein complex. Molecular structure of the dystrophin-glycoprotein complex and related proteins superimposed on the sarcolemma and subsarcolemmal actin network (redrawn from Yoshida et al. [5], with modifications). cc, coiled-coil motif on dystrophin (Dys) and dystrobrevin (DB); SGC, sarcoglycan complex;SSPN, sarcospan; Syn, syntrophin; Cav3, caveolin-3; N and C, the N and C termini, respectively; G, G-domain of laminin; asterisk indicates the actin-binding site on the dystrophin rod domain; WW, WW domain.
This is a remarkable advance, but until the host immune response issue is satisfactorily addressed, it will remain a problem.

Whole Bone Marrow Transplantations into the Heart: Hope or Hype?

Bone marrow, that squishy material that resides inside your bones, especially your long bones, is a treasure-trove of stem cells. Bone marrow has blood-making stem cells called
  • “hematopoietic stem cells” or HSCs, and

a small subset of bone marrow stem cells can make blood vessels.  These blood vessel-making stem cells are called

  • “endothelial progenitor cells,” or EPCs.
HSCs are the main stem cells in bone marrow that allows bone marrow transplants to reconstitute the blood cell formation system.  People who have cancers of the blood system and have had their own bone marrow
  • completely destroyed by ionizing radiation or drugs like busulphan or cyclophosphamide
  • require bone marrow transplants to refurbish their own decimated bone marrow.
When a leukemia or lymphoma patient receives a bone marrow transplant, the stem cells in the bone marrow proliferate and reconstitute the patient’s blood-making and immune capacity (See R. Haas, et al. High-dose therapy and autologous peripheral blood stem cell transplantation in patients with multiple myeloma. Recent Results in Cancer Research 2011;183:207-38; and Ronjon Chakraverty and Stephen Mackinnon, Allogeneic Transplantation for Lymphoma. Journal of Clinical Oncology2011;29(14):1855-63). Bone marrow also has a supportive tissue called “stroma.”
caroline20bertram20bone20marrow20stromal20cells20on20porous20matrix20crop
Bone marrow stroma growing on plates coated with spider silk protein.
Stromal cells do not make blood, but it plays an essential supportive role in blood making. The main component of the stroma are the mesenchymal stem cells,: or MSCs. MSCs can readily differentiate into fat, bone, or muscle,but a wide variety of experiments have shown that MSCs can also become heart muscle, blood vessels, glial cells, neurons, and several other cell types. There are other types of stem cells as well that include
  • marrow-isolated adult multilineage-inducible (MIAMI) stem cells,
  • multipotent adult progenitor cells (MAPCs),
  • very-small embryonic-like (VSEL) stem cells,
  • mesodermal progenitor cells (MPCs), and
  • side population (SP) cells.
 F1. Delivery and potential effects of MSC therapy in cardiac disease.
Figure 5. Adipogenic and osteogenic differentiation of gene modified ADSC
Given the ability of bone marrow to reconstruct another patient’s bone marrow, could it heal another tissue? This question was given a very strange answer when women who had bone marrow transplants from male donors were found to have heart cells that contained a Y chromosome.  Since human females have cells with two X chromosomes,
  • the only source of these cells was the bone marrow transplant (see Arjun Deb, et al. Bone marrow-derived cardiomyocytes are present in adult human heart: A study of gender-mismatched bone marrow transplantation patients. Circulation 2003;107(9):1247-9).  This finding suggested that bone marrow could be used to heal the hearts of patients who had suffered a heart attack.
 Such notions were tested in mice.  The experimental strategy was rather simple in principle;  experimentally induce a heart attack in laboratory mice and then transplant human bone marrow stem cells into the hearts to see if these cells could help heal these hearts.  The initial experiments in mice were astounding.  Not only did the implanted bone marrow cells regenerate over half of the heart,
  • the implanted bone marrow cells expressed a bevy of heart-specific genes and
  • the hearts of the bone marrow recipient mice worked extremely well (Donald Orlic, et al. Transplanted adult bone marrow cells repair myocardial infarcts in mice. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences2001;938:221-9; discussion 229-3).
Unfortunately, no one else could recapitulate Orlic’s remarkable studies, and when bone marrow cells were transplanted into mouse hearts in other labs, they helped heart function, but
  • they did not become anything like heart muscle cells (Leora Balsam, et al. Haematopoietic stem cells adopt mature haematopoietic fates in ischemic myocardium. Nature. 2004;428(6983):668-73).
In all cases the transplanted bone marrow cells helped improve the function of the hearts of mice that had recently experienced a heart attack, but there were hanging questions as to how they helped the heart.
Despite these uncertainties, several clinical trials examined the ability of a patient’s own bone marrow to heal their damaged heart.  These trials took patients who had suffered a heart attack and
  • extracted their own bone marrow and
  • then transplanted into the heart of the heart attack patient.
A very noninvasive way to transplant the bone marrow that use catheter technologies that are used to perform angioplasty and apply stents (for an EXCELLENT video on this technology, see this link).  The catheter
  • was used to introduce bone marrow stem cells into the heart by means of a catheter.
This precluded the need to crack the patient’s chest, and was quite safe, since it has already been used in angioplasty. Early Phase I studies just examined the safety of applying stem cells from bone marrow to the heart.  While these early Phase I studies were small and nonrandomized, they universally found that procedure was safe.  See the following references:
    Birgit Assmus, et al. Transplantation of progenitor cells and regeneration enhancement in acute myocardial infarction (TOPCARE -AMI). Circulation 2002;106:3009-17.  59 patients were treated with intracoronary bone marrow cells, the percent of the blood in the ventricle that was pumped per heartbeat (ejection fraction or EF; it is a major indicator of how well the heart is performing) increased; the tendency for the heart to enlarge decreased, the size of the heart scar decreased and the amount of blood flowing to the heart increased.  One patient died during the course of the experiment, but no further cardiovascular events, including ventricular arrhythmias or syncope, occurred during one-year follow-up.
    Bodo E. Strauer, et al. Repair of myocardium by autologous intracoronary mononuclear bone marrow transplantation in humans. Circulation 2002;106:1913-18. Results – Ten patients, were injected with intracoronary bone marrow cells 6-10 days after experiencing a heart attack.  All in all, the amount of blood pumped per beat (stroke volume), increased, the myocardial scar shrunk, and blood supply to the rest of the heart increased.
    Francisco Fernández=Avilés, et al. Experimental and clinical capability of human bone marrow cells after myocardial infarction. Circulation Research 2004;95:742-8.  20 recent heart attack patients who had suffered a heart attack ~13 days earlier received intracoronary bone marrow cells and, on the average, the EF increased, the volume that remains in the chambers after pumping (end-systolic volume or ESV) decreased (means the heart is beat more effectively), and the motion of the surfaces of the heart increased as well.  There were no major adverse events.
    Volker Schächinger, et al. Transplantation of progenitor cells and regeneration enhancement in acute myocardial infarction: Final one-year results of the TOPCARE-AMI Trial. Journal of the American College of Cardiology 2004;44(8): 1690-1699.  See the other TOPCARE-AMI summary above.
    J. Bartunek, et al. Intracoronary injection of CD133-positive enriched bone marrow progenitor cells promotes cardiac recovery after recent myocardial infarction: feasibility and safety. Circulation. 2005;112(9 Suppl):I178-83.  19 recent heart attack patients received intracoronary bone marrow cells 10-13 days after suffering a heart attack and on the average, patients showed an increase in ejection fraction, increase in circulation throughout the heart and fewer dead cells in the heart.  No major adverse effects.
These studies established the safety of the procedure, but they were small, and they were not tested against a placebo.  Therefore, randomized studies were conducted to test the efficacy of bone marrow transplants in the heart to treat heart attack patients.  Remember, drug treatments slow the heart down and delay further cardiac deterioration, but they do not address the problem of dead heart tissue.
  • Only regenerative treatments can potentially replace the dead heat tissue with new, living tissue.
Phase II studies and other studies that were combined Phase I/II studies examined just over 900 patients in almost 20 clinical trials and
  • the result overwhelmingly show that bone marrow transplants
    • significantly improve the function of the hearts of heart attack patients.
A few studies are negative, that is there are no statistically significant differences between the placebo and the experimental patients.  However, the vast majority of the studies are positive, and those studies that are negative seem to have a viable explanation as to why they are so.  These studies are listed below:
        Shao-liang Chen, et al. Effect on left ventricular function of intracoronary transplantation of autologous bone marrow mesenchymal stem cell in patients with acute myocardial infarction. American Journal of Cardiology 2004;94(1): 92-95.  In this study, 69 patients participated, but only 34 received the intracoronary bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells approximately 18 days after experiencing a heart attack.  Patients who had received the stem cells showed a significant increase in ejection fraction versus those patients that had received the placebo.  There were no adverse reactions.
        Junbo Ge, et al. Efficacy of emergent transcatheter transplantation of stem cells for treatment of acute myocardial infarction (TCT-Stami). Heart 2006;92(12):1764-7.  20 patients were treated, the moment they received angioplasty less than a day after they has experience a heart attack.  1o received the placebo and 10 received the bone marrow cells.  Those who received the bone marrow cells showed enhanced ejection fraction, better heart circulation, and showed no signs of enlargement of the heart relative to the placebo group, which showed a decrease in EF, signs of heart enlargement and decreased heart circulation.  There were no adverse reactions.
        Wen Ruan, et al. Assessment of left ventricular segmental function after autologous bone marrow stem cells transplantation in patients with acute myocardial infarction by tissue tracking and strain imaging. Chinese Medical Journal 2005;118(14):1175-81.  Less than one day after a heart attack, twenty patients were randomly treated with intracoronary injections of bone-marrow cells (N= 9) or diluted serum (n = 11).  Echocardiograms at 1 week, 3 weeks and 3 and 6 months after treatment were used to assess the status of the patient’s hearts, and various means were used to assess left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF), end-diastolic volume (EDV) and end-systolic volume (ESV).  They found that bone marrow stem cells helped improve global and regional contractility and attenuate post-infarction left ventricular remodeling. There were clear increases in EF, and clear decreases in EDV and ESV.  There were no adverse reactions.
        Huang RC, et al. Long term follow-up on emergent intracoronary autologous bone marrow mononuclear cell transplantation for acute inferior-wall myocardial infarction. Long term follow-up on emergent intracoronary autologous bone marrow mononuclear cell transplantation for acute inferior-wall myocardial infarction. Zhonghua Yi Xue Za Zhi 2006; 86(16):1107-10.  This article is only in Chinese, which I do not read.  Therefore this is a summary of the abstract, which is in English.  Forty patients who had just experience a heart attack were treated with angioplasty and intracoronary transplantation of autologous bone marrow cells (n = 20) or normal saline and heparin (n = 20) less than one day after the heart attack.  After six months, the treated group had higher EFs and greater decrease in the size of the heart scar.
        Kang Yao, et al. Administration of intracoronary bone marrow mononuclear cells on chronic myocardial infarction improves diastolic function. Heart 2008;94:1147-53.  47 patients who had just experienced a heart attack received either intracoronary infusion of bone marrow cells (24 of them), or a saline infusion (23 of them) 5-21 days after experiencing the heart attack.  Bone marrow treatments did not lead to significant improvement of cardiac systolic function, infarct size or myocardial perfusion, but did lead to improvement in diastolic function.
        Martin Penicka, et al. Intracoronary injection of autologous bone marrow-derived mononuclear cells in patients with large anterior acute myocardial infarction. Journal of the American College of Cardiology. 2007 49(24):2373-4.  This study was a bit of a mess.  It was prematurely terminated, and four patients died or had severely worsened heart failure during the study.  The authors do not provide details on how they isolated and prepared their bone marrow stem cells, which turns out to be quite important.  27 patients were treated nine days after a heart attack with either intracoronary bone marrow cells (n = 17) or just angioplasty (n = 10).  There were no significant differences between the two groups.  Given the problems with this paper, the results do not inspire much confidence.
        The BOOST study.  Three papers – (1) Arnd Schaefer, et al. Impact of intracoronary bone marrow cell transfer on diastolic function in patients after acute myocardial infarction: results from the BOOST trial. European Heart Journal 2006;27(8):929-35.  (2) Kai C. Wollert, et al. Intracoronary autologous bone-marrow cell transfer after myocardial infarction: the BOOST randomised controlled clinical trial. The Lancet 2004;364(9429):141-8. (3) Gerd P. Meyer, et al. Intracoronary Bone Marrow Cell Transfer After Myocardial Infarction: Eighteen Months’ Follow-Up Data From the Randomized, Controlled BOOST (BOne marrOw transfer to enhance ST-elevation infarct regeneration) Trial. Circulation 2006;113:1287-94.  This study examined 60 heart attack patients and treated 30 of them with intracoronary bone marrow stem cells and other 30 with just angioplasty 4-8 days after the heart attack.  At six-months there was a significant increase in ejection fraction in the bone marrow-recipient group, but those differences between the bone marrow group and the control disappeared after six months and during the 18 month follow-up, no differences could be detected.  At the five-year follow-up, no differences could be detected between the two groups.  Therefore these authors suggested that early recovery is accelerated by bone marrow stem cells, but that these effects are not long-term.  See Arnd Scharfer, et al. Long-term effects of intracoronary bone marrow cell transfer on diastolic function in patients after acute myocardial infarction: 5-year results from the randomized-controlled BOOST trial—an echocardiographic study. European Journal of Echocardiology 2010;11(2):165-71.  No adverse effects were seen in this study.
        Stefan Janssens, et al. Autologous bone marrow-derived stem-cell transfer in patients with ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction: double-blind, randomised controlled trial. The Lancet 2006;267(9505):113-121.  This study treated 67 patients less than one day after experiencing a heart attack, and broke the patients into two groups, half of whom were treated with intracoronary bone marrow stem cells (n = 33), and the other half were treated just with angioplasty (n = 34).  While there was no significant increase in ejection fraction in the treated group in comparison to the control group after four months, the bone marrow-treated patients showed increased shrinkage of the heart scar and increased regional heart contraction abilities.  A follow-up study published in 2009 confirmed these improvements.  See Lieven Herbots, et al. Improved regional function after autologous bone marrow-derived stem cell transfer in patients with acute myocardial infarction: a randomized, double-blind strain rate imaging study. European Heart Journal 2009;30(6):662-70.
        REPAIR-AMI – Several papers:  (1) Sandra Erbs, et al. Restoration of Microvascular Function in the Infarct-Related Artery by Intracoronary Transplantation of Bone Marrow Progenitor Cells in Patients With Acute Myocardial Infarction: The Doppler Substudy of the Reinfusion of Enriched Progenitor Cells and Infarct Remodeling in Acute Myocardial Infarction (REPAIR-AMI) Trial. Circulation 2007;116:366-74.  (2) Throsten Dill, et al. Intracoronary administration of bone marrow-derived progenitor cells improves left ventricular function in patients at risk for adverse remodeling after acute ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction: Results of the Reinfusion of Enriched Progenitor cells And Infarct Remodeling in Acute Myocardial Infarction study (REPAIR-AMI) cardiac Magnetic Resonance Imaging substudy. American Heart Journal 2009;157(3):541-7.  (3) Volker Schächinger, et al. Intracoronary infusion of bone marrow-derived mononuclear cells abrogates adverse left ventricular remodelling post-acute myocardial infarction: insights from the reinfusion of enriched progenitor cells and infarct remodelling in acute myocardial infarction (REPAIR-AMI) trial. European Journal of Heart Failure 2009;11(10):973-9.  (4) Birgit Assmus, et al. Clinical outcome 2 years after intracoronary administration of bone marrow-derived progenitor cells in acute myocardial infarction. Circulation Heart Failure 2010;3(1):89-96.   This large study used 204 patients and treated 102 of them with bone marrow cells and the others with just angioplasty and the infusion of a placebo 3-7 days after suffering a heart attack.  This study definitively showed a significant increase in the ejection fraction in comparison to the placebo group.  Likewise, the combined end point death and recurrence of heart attacks and rehospitalization for heart failure was significantly reduced in the bone marrow-treated group.  A two-year follow-up also showed that these improvements still presisted after two years.  No major adverse side effects were observed.
        Jaroslav Meluzin, et al. Autologous transplantation of mononuclear bone marrow cells in patients with acute myocardial infarction: The effect of the dose of transplanted cells on myocardial function. American Heart Journal 2006;152(5):975(e9-15).  Also see Roman Panovsky, et al. Cell Therapy in Patients with Left Ventricular Dysfunction Due to Myocardial Infarction. Echocardiography 2008;25(8): 888–897.  This study is one of the few to address the dosage of bone marrow cells.  These workers randomized 66 patients, and placed them into three groups:  22 of them received the placebo, 22 received a low dose of bone marrow cells (10,000,000 cells), and 22 received a high dose of bone marrow cells (100,000,000 cells).  These treatments were given seven days after experiencing a heart attack.  At 3 months after the treatment, the ejection fraction was significantly higher in the patients who had received the high dose of bone marrow cells and not the low dose patients.  Again, these treatments were by means of intracoronary delivery, and no major adverse effects were observed.
        The ASTAMI Study – Another fairly large study.  (1) Ketil Lunde, et al. Exercise capacity and quality of life after intracoronary injection of autologous mononuclear bone marrow cells in acute myocardial infarction: Results from the Autologous Stem cell Transplantation in Acute Myocardial Infarction (ASTAMI) randomized controlled trial. American Heart Journal 2007;154(4):710.e1-8.  (2) Jan Otto Beitnes, et al. Left ventricular systolic and diastolic function improve after acute myocardial infarction treated with acute percutaneous coronary intervention, but are not influenced by intracoronary injection of autologous mononuclear bone marrow cells: a 3 year serial echocardiographic sub-study of the randomized-controlled ASTAMI study. European Journal of Echocardiology 2011;12(2):98-106.  (3) Ketil Lunde, et al. Autologous stem cell transplantation in acute myocardial infarction: The ASTAMI randomized controlled trial. Intracoronary transplantation of autologous mononuclear bone marrow cells, study design and safety aspects. Scandinavian Cardiovascular Journal 2005;39(3):150-8. (4) Jan Otto Beitnes, et al. Long-term results after intracoronary injection of autologous mononuclear bone marrow cells in acute myocardial infarction: the ASTAMI randomised, controlled study. Heart 2009;95:1983-9.  (5)  Einar Hopp, et al. Regional myocardial function after intracoronary bone marrow cell injection in reperfused anterior wall infarction – a cardiovascular magnetic resonance tagging study. Journal of Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance 2011, 13:22This study examined 100 recent heart attack patients and treated 50 of them with intracoronary bone marrow cells and the remaining patients with just angioplasty, 5-7 days after a heart attack.  Measurements of heart function at 3, 6, and 12 months, and 3 years after the procedure found no significant differences between the two groups, with the exception of a slightly increased exercise tolerance in the group that received the bone marrow cells.  Both the control and the treated group showed the same low numbers of adverse reactions; none of which could be attributed directly to the treatment protocol.  This study was negative and it is often brought up by proponents of embryonic stem cells as an example of the failure of bone marrow cells to heal a heart.  However, the protocol that was used by the ASTAMI study to isolate and store the bone marrow cells was different from that used by the successful REPAIR-AMI group.  Florian Seeger at the University of Frankfurt evaluated the two protocols and found that the ASTAMI bone marrow isolation protocol produced cells that showed poor viability and poor response to chemical factors that are made in the heart after a heart attack that summons stem cells to it and holds them there (See FH Seeger, et al. Cell isolation procedures matter: a comparison of different isolation protocols of bone marrow mononuclear cells used for cell therapy in patients with acute myocardial infarction. 2007;28(6):766-72).  The ASTAMI research group has refused to accept that their bone marrow isolation protocol affected the efficacy of their bone marrow stem cells, but Seeger’s work was corroborated by the work of van Beem (see R.T. van Beem, et al. Recovery and functional activity of mononuclear bone marrow and peripheral blood cells after different cell isolation protocols used in clinical trials for cell therapy after acute myocardial infarction. Eurointervention 2008;4(1):133-8).  Therefore, the ASTAMI clinical trial used poor quality bone marrow preparations that were destined to fail, and this clinical trial is no indication of the efficacy or lack of efficacy of bone marrow stem cells to treat failing hearts.
        José Suárez de Lezo, et al. Regenerative Therapy in Patients With a Revascularized Acute Anterior Myocardial Infarction and Depressed Ventricular Function. Revista Espaňola de Cardiologia 2007;60(4):357-65.  A small study treated 30 patients with either angioplasty (n = 10), a drug called G-CSF, which tends to bring bone marrow stem cells from the bone marrow and into the circulating blood (n = 10), or intracoronary bone marrow cell treatments (n = 10).  The bone marrow=treat group showed a 20% increase in ejection fraction whereas the control and G-CSF-treated group only saw 6% and 4% increases, respectively.  Patients received their treatments 5-9 days after their heart attacks.
        The FINCELL Trial – Heikki V. Huikuri, et al. Effects of intracoronary injection of mononuclear bone marrow cells on left ventricular function, arrhythmia risk profile, and restenosis after thrombolytic therapy of acute myocardial infarction. European Heart Journal 2008;29(22):2723-2732.  2-6 days after experiencing a heart attack, 80 patients were randomly assigned to receive intracoronary either bone marrow cells (n = 40) or placebo (n = 40) during angioplasty.  After 6 months, the bone marrow-treated group showed clear increases in ejection fraction in comparison to the control group.  Also, several safety issues, such as “restenosis” or the narrowing of coronary arteries that surround the heart as a result of bone marrow treatments were addressed by this study, since some researchers suspected that bone marrow treatments increased the risk of restenosis.  In this study, no increased incidence of restenosis was observed in the bone marrow-treated group.
        REGENT Study – Michał Tendera, et al. Intracoronary infusion of bone marrow-derived selected CD34+CXCR4+ cells and non-selected mononuclear cells in patients with acute STEMI and reduced left ventricular ejection fraction: results of randomized, multicentre Myocardial Regeneration by Intracoronary Infusion of Selected Population of Stem Cells in Acute Myocardial Infarction (REGENT) Trial. European Heart Journal 2009;30(11):1313-21.  This study examined 200 patients who had experienced a heart attack, and seven days after the heart attack, they treated these patients with either unselected bone marrow cells (n = 80), selected bone marrow cells (n = 80), or a placebo (n = 40).  This large study did not find statistically significant differences between the three groups, but the control group did not show an increase in the ejection fraction, but the unselected and selected bone marrow-treated patients did.
The figure shown below is from the Tendera et al., paper that shows the compiled changes in ejection fraction between the three groups:
changes in ejection fraction between the three groups f3_medium1
As you can see, the control group patients experienced a decrease in their ejection fractions, but the two bone marrow-treated groups experienced an increase, even if it was slight.  The figure below shows the data for the sickest patients.
        As can be seen, for those patients with the sickest hearts there was a significant difference in the increase in the injection fraction and other heart-associated factors.  For this reason, this study does not seem definitive.  There were three deaths (one in each group), no strokes, four heart attacks (two in the controls and one in each experimental group), and a low rate of re-narrowing of the heart blood vessels.  Since this is from 200 total patients, this is a very low rate of adverse events.
15.     Jay H. Tendera, et al. Results of a phase 1, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of bone marrow mononuclear stem cell administration in patients following ST-elevation myocardial infarction. American Heart Journal 2010;160:428-34.  In this study forty patients were treated with either intracoronary bone marrow cells or a placebo.  The two groups showed no significant differences in ejection fraction after six months, but the bone marrow-treated group showed no enlargement of the heart in response to the heart attack, whereas the control group did.  No adverse heart events occurred.
This summarizes the clinical trials that used bone marrow to treat patients who had experienced recent heart attacks (acute myocardial infarctions).  The preponderance of the data clearly shows that this procedure is safe, and effective to treat heart attacks.  Secondly, several analyses that take the data from these trials and group them together into one gigantic study (meta-analysis) have been published, and these studies also show that bone marrow treatments for recent heart attacks are safe and effective (for example, see Meng Jiang, et al. Randomized controlled trials on the therapeutic effects of adult progenitor cells for myocardial infarction: meta-analysis. Expert Opinion on Biological Therapy 2010;10(5):667-80).

A new take on efficient delivery in regenerative medicine

Nov 14, 2013 · by David O’Connell http://transbiotex.wordpress.com/
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Startup to Strengthen Synthetic Biology and Regenerative Medicine Industries with Cutting Edge Cell Products

Nov 28, 2013 · by David O’Connell  http://transbiotex.wordpress.com/ 
synthetic biology for regenerative medicine  image205
Dr. Jon Rowley and Dr. Uplaksh Kumar, Co-Founders of RoosterBio, Inc., a newly formed biotech startup located in Frederick, are paving the way for even more innovation in the rapidly growing fields of Synthetic Biology and Regenerative Medicine
Dr. Jon Rowley and Dr. Uplaksh Kumar, Co-Founders of RoosterBio, Inc., a newly formed biotech startup located in Frederick, are paving the way for even more innovation in the rapidly growing fields of Synthetic Biology and Regenerative Medicine. Synthetic Biology combines engineering principles with basic science to build biological products, including regenerative medicines and cellular therapies. Regenerative medicine is a broad definition for innovative medical therapies that will enable the body to repair, replace, restore and regenerate damaged or diseased cells, tissues and organs. Regenerative therapies that are in clinical trials today may enable repair of damaged heart muscle following heart attack, replacement of skin for burn victims, restoration of movement after spinal cord injury, regeneration of pancreatic tissue for insulin production in diabetics and provide new treatments for Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases, to name just a few applications.
While the potential of the field is promising, the pace of development has been slow. One main reason for this is that the living cells required for these therapies are cost-prohibitive and not supplied at volumes that support many research and product development efforts. RoosterBio will manufacture large quantities of standardized primary cells at high quality and low cost, which will quicken the pace of scientific discovery and translation to the clinic. “Our goal is to accelerate the development of products that incorporate living cells by providing abundant, affordable and high quality materials to researchers that are developing and commercializing these regenerative technologies” says Dr. Rowley.
RoosterBio’s current focus is to supply high volume research-grade cells manufactured with processes consistent with current Good Manufacturing Practices (cGMP). These cells will be used for tissue engineering research and cell-based product development. This will position RoosterBio to quickly move on to producing clinical-grade cells to be used in translational R&D and clinical studies.
“We have spent almost 20 years as cell and tissue technologists and have lived with the pain of needing to generate large amounts of cells for experiments this whole time. RoosterBio was founded to address this problem for cell and tissue engineers, saving them time and money, and accelerating their path to the clinic,” says Dr. Rowley. RoosterBio will supply cells, starting with adult human bone marrow-derived stem cells, at volumes that will allow for a more rapid pace of experimentation in the lab.
“We will also offer paired media that has been engineered to quickly and efficiently expand the supplied cells to hundreds of millions or billions of cells within 1-2 weeks, something that would take 4-8 weeks using cell and media systems currently on the market,” adds Dr. Kumar. “We aim to usher in a new era of productivity to the field, and we believe that our products will at least triple the efficiency of the average laboratory”.
RoosterBio, Inc. is located in the Frederick Innovative Technology Center on Metropolitan Court in Frederick. Dr. Rowley entered into the incubation program in October of this year, and already gained four full time employees, and has several academic and industrial collaborators lined up. This team has made remarkable progress and are already poised for their official product launch for their human bone marrow-derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells (hBM-MSC), anticipated in March 2014.
RoosterBio’s product formats have been extraordinarily well received by the market, and RoosterBio has already secured customers who are anxiously awaiting their product launch. “I am excited to see that someone is taking on the challenge of providing a sufficient number of MSCs to immediately start experiments upon their receipt. This saves us several weeks of time upfront waiting for cells to expand to volumes that allow us to begin experiments,” says Todd McDevitt, Director of the Stem Cell Engineering Center at the Georgia Institute of Technology. “For tissue engineering folks like myself, this means we can focus our time on high priority research questions and not spend the majority of our time performing routine cell culture.”
The Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine industry is one of the fastest growing in the life science sector with the total expenditure in 2011 at $17.1 billion. This number is expected to increase in 2020 to $40.5 billion. The sales of stem cell products accounted for $1.38 billion in 2010 and is expected to reach $3.9 billion by the year 2014 and $8 billion in annual revenues by 2020.

About RoosterBio

RoosterBio is focused on building a robust and sustainable Regenerative Medicine industry. Our products are affordable and standardized primary cells and media, manufactured and delivered with highest quality and in formats that simplify product development efforts. RoosterBio products will accelerate the translation of cell therapy and tissue engineering technologies into the clinic.
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http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2013/11/02/three-dimensional-fibroblast-matrix-improves-left-ventricular-function/

Stem Cell Therapy for Coronary Artery Disease (CAD)

http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2013/11/02/stem-cell-therapy-for-coronary-heart-disease/

 

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