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Selected Publications


Mitochondrial metabolites predict adverse cardiovascular events in individuals with diabetes.

Journal Article JCI Insight · September 8, 2023 Metabolic mechanisms underlying the heterogeneity of major adverse cardiovascular (CV) event (MACE) risk in individuals with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2D) remain unclear. We hypothesized that circulating metabolites reflecting mitochondrial dysfunction pr ... Full text Link to item Cite

Accelerated Epigenetic Aging Is Associated With Multiple Cardiometabolic, Hematologic, and Renal Abnormalities: A Project Baseline Health Substudy.

Journal Article Circ Genom Precis Med · June 2023 BACKGROUND: Epigenetic clocks estimate chronologic age using methylation levels at specific loci. We tested the hypothesis that accelerated epigenetic aging is associated with abnormal values in a range of clinical, imaging, and laboratory characteristics. ... Full text Link to item Cite

The association of accelerated epigenetic age with all-cause mortality in cardiac catheterization patients as mediated by vascular and cardiometabolic outcomes.

Journal Article Clin Epigenetics · December 3, 2022 BACKGROUND: Epigenetic age is a DNA methylation-based biomarker of aging that is accurate across the lifespan and a range of cell types. The difference between epigenetic age and chronological age, termed age acceleration (AA), is a strong predictor of lif ... Full text Open Access Link to item Cite

Protein biomarkers of cardiac remodeling and inflammation associated with HFpEF and incident events.

Journal Article Sci Rep · November 22, 2022 There is increasing evidence that HFpEF is a heterogeneous clinical entity and distinct molecular pathways may contribute to pathophysiology. Leveraging unbiased proteomics to identify novel biomarkers, this study seeks to understand the underlying molecul ... Full text Link to item Cite

A Phenome Wide Association Study of Severe COVID-19 Genetic Risk Variants

Journal Article · December 11, 2021 AbstractBackgroundGenetic loci associated with risk of severe COVID-19 infection have been identified and individuals with complicated COVID-19 infections often have multiple comorbidities ... Full text Cite

Circulating long chain acylcarnitines and outcomes in diabetic heart failure: an HF-ACTION clinical trial substudy.

Journal Article Cardiovasc Diabetol · August 3, 2021 BACKGROUND: Whether differences in circulating long chain acylcarnitines (LCAC) are seen in heart failure (HF) patients with and without diabetes mellitus (DM), and whether these biomarkers report on exercise capacity and clinical outcomes, remains unknown ... Full text Link to item Cite

Obesity Genomics and Metabolomics: a Nexus of Cardiometabolic Risk.

Journal Article Curr Cardiol Rep · October 10, 2020 PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Obesity is a significant international public health epidemic with major downstream consequences on morbidity and mortality. While lifestyle factors contribute, there is an evolving understanding of genomic and metabolomic pathways invol ... Full text Link to item Cite

Using 4-vinylcyclohexene diepoxide as a model of menopause for cardiovascular disease.

Journal Article American journal of physiology. Heart and circulatory physiology · June 2020 There is a sharp rise in cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk and progression with the onset of menopause. The 4-vinylcyclohexene diepoxide (VCD) model of menopause recapitulates the natural, physiological transition through perimenopause to menopause. We hyp ... Full text Cite

Impact of Age on Comorbidities and Outcomes in Heart Failure With Reduced Ejection Fraction.

Journal Article JACC Heart Fail · December 2019 OBJECTIVES: This study sought to determine whether age modifies the impact of key comorbidities on clinical outcomes for patients with heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF). BACKGROUND: Comorbidities impact outcomes in HFrEF. However, the ef ... Full text Link to item Cite

Effect of Interleukin-1 Blockade on Left Ventricular Systolic Performance and Work: A Post Hoc Pooled Analysis of 2 Clinical Trials.

Journal Article Journal of cardiovascular pharmacology · July 2018 BackgroundInterleukin-1 (IL-1) blockade seems to improve anaerobic exercise in patients with systolic heart failure through improved left ventricular (LV) systolic performance. However, it is unclear whether IL-1 blockade affects LV systolic perfo ... Full text Cite

Sex Differences at the Time of Myectomy in Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy.

Journal Article Circulation. Heart failure · June 2018 BackgroundOne of the first clinically detectable alterations in heart function in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) is a decline in diastolic function. Diastolic dysfunction is caused by changes in intrinsic properties of cardiomyocytes or an incr ... Full text Cite

Interleukin-1 Blockade in Recently Decompensated Systolic Heart Failure: Results From REDHART (Recently Decompensated Heart Failure Anakinra Response Trial).

Journal Article Circulation. Heart failure · November 2017 BackgroundAn enhanced inflammatory response predicts worse outcomes in heart failure (HF). We hypothesized that administration of IL-1 (interleukin-1) receptor antagonist (anakinra) could inhibit the inflammatory response and improve peak aerobic ... Full text Cite

Bifidobacterium animalis subsp. lactis 420 mitigates the pathological impact of myocardial infarction in the mouse.

Journal Article Beneficial microbes · April 2017 There is a growing appreciation that our microbial environment in the gut plays a critical role in the maintenance of health and the pathogenesis of disease. Probiotic, beneficial gut microbes, administration can directly attenuate cardiac injury and post- ... Full text Cite

Selective phosphorylation of PKA targets after β-adrenergic receptor stimulation impairs myofilament function in Mybpc3-targeted HCM mouse model.

Journal Article Cardiovascular research · May 2016 AimsHypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) has been associated with reduced β-adrenergic receptor (β-AR) signalling, leading downstream to a low protein kinase A (PKA)-mediated phosphorylation. It remained undefined whether all PKA targets will be affe ... Full text Cite

A mouse model of heart failure with preserved ejection fraction due to chronic infusion of a low subpressor dose of angiotensin II.

Journal Article American journal of physiology. Heart and circulatory physiology · September 2015 Heart failure (HF) with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) is a clinical syndrome of HF symptoms associated with impaired diastolic function. Although it represents ∼50% of patients with HF, the mechanisms of disease are poorly understood, and therapies a ... Full text Cite

Diet and sex modify exercise and cardiac adaptation in the mouse.

Journal Article American journal of physiology. Heart and circulatory physiology · January 2015 The heart adapts to exercise stimuli in a sex-dimorphic manner when mice are fed the traditional soy-based chow. Females undergo more voluntary exercise (4 wk) than males and exhibit more cardiac hypertrophy per kilometer run (18, 32). We have found that d ... Full text Cite

Perceptions of personal belief vaccine exemption policy: a survey of Arizona vaccine providers.

Journal Article Vaccine · June 2014 BackgroundAs exemptions to school-entry requirements rise, vaccination rates in Arizona school children are approaching levels that may threaten public health. Understanding the interactions physicians have with vaccine-hesitant parents, as well a ... Full text Cite

A method to study the impact of chemically-induced ovarian failure on exercise capacity and cardiac adaptation in mice

Journal Article Journal of Visualized Experiments · April 7, 2014 The risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) increases in post-menopausal women, yet, the role of exercise, as a preventative measure for CVD risk in post-menopausal women has not been adequately studied. Accordingly, we investigated the impact of voluntary ca ... Full text Cite

The physiological role of cardiac cytoskeleton and its alterations in heart failure.

Journal Article Biochimica et biophysica acta · February 2014 Cardiac muscle cells are equipped with specialized biochemical machineries for the rapid generation of force and movement central to the work generated by the heart. During each heart beat cardiac muscle cells perceive and experience changes in length and ... Full text Cite

Temporal and morphological impact of pressure overload in transgenic FHC mice

Journal Article Frontiers in Physiology · September 30, 2013 Although familial hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (FHC) is characterized as cardiac disease in the absence of overt stressors, disease penetrance, and pathological progression largely depend on modifying factors. Accordingly, pressure overload by transverse ao ... Full text Cite

Sexually dimorphic myofilament function and cardiac troponin I phosphospecies distribution in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy mice.

Journal Article Archives of biochemistry and biophysics · July 2013 The pathological progression of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) is sexually dimorphic such that male HCM mice develop phenotypic indicators of cardiac disease well before female HCM mice. Here, we hypothesized that alterations in myofilament function und ... Full text Cite

Effects of chemically induced ovarian failure on voluntary wheel-running exercise and cardiac adaptation in mice.

Journal Article Comparative medicine · June 2013 The role of exercise in decreasing the risk of cardiovascular disease in postmenopausal women has not been studied sufficiently. Accordingly, we investigated the effect of voluntary wheel-running and forced treadmill exercise on cardiac adaptation in mice ... Cite

Perturbed length-dependent activation in human hypertrophic cardiomyopathy with missense sarcomeric gene mutations.

Journal Article Circulation research · May 2013 RationaleHigh-myofilament Ca(2+) sensitivity has been proposed as a trigger of disease pathogenesis in familial hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) on the basis of in vitro and transgenic mice studies. However, myofilament Ca(2+) sensitivity depends ... Full text Cite