TRANSLATING VASCULAR BIOLOGY INTO CLINICAL CARE FOR CARDIOLOGY



Kenneth Maiese, M.D., Rutgers University of Medicine & Dentistry of New Jersey

With the progressing aging of the world’s population, cardiovascular disease will continue to significantly impact millions of individuals throughout the globe. This disorder remains one of five leading causes of death that are cardiac disease, cancer, chronic lower respiratory disease, stroke, and traumatic accidents.

As a result, unique avenues for targeting the treatment of cardiovascular disease are desperately needed to translate knowledge of cellular mechanisms into effective clinical care. Wnt1 inducible signaling pathway protein 1 (WISP1), a matricellular protein and a downstream target of the wingless pathway Wnt1, is one such target to consider that governs cellular protection, stem cell proliferation, and tissue regeneration in multiple disorders. WISP1 has a close but complex relationship with a number of proliferative and protective pathways that include phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI 3-K), protein kinase B (Akt), interleukins, small non-coding ribonucleic acids (RNAs), sirtuin silent mating type information regulation 2 homolog 1 (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) (SIRT1), and the mechanistic target of rapamycin (mTOR). In addition, WISP1 can influence immune based cells that can hold a fine biological control over cell death processes that involve apoptosis as well as autophagy. Further analysis and translation of these pathways may offer the necessary insight for the development of new treatments for cardiovascular disease that exceeds the efficacy of current traditional care protocols.