Cardiovascular risks after COVID-19 disease versus vaccine

Kwan et al. show that the risk of postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS) is increased after COVID-19 vaccination but still more than five times lower than after surviving COVID-19 disease.

See Kwan et al.

Fight-or-flight response revisited

Using genetically altered mice, Papa et al. find that phosphorylation of Rad and augmented calcium influx are essential for cardiac fight-or-flight responses.

See Papa et al.

Ventricular arrhythmia after cardiac infarction

By combining prospective clinical and mechanistic computational studies, Sung et al. show that the fat that infiltrates the post-myocardial infarction scar is a dominant factor in eliciting infarct-related ventricular arrhythmia.

See Sung et al.

The ‘sunset years’ come with sex differences in cardiometabolic health

Using a large cohort of people that spans three generations, Zhernakova et al. find that sex differences in risk factors and biomarkers for cardiometabolic diseases change dynamically with age.

See Zhernakova et al. and News & Views by Miller and Heather

Collateral arteries of the heart

The figure adapted from Anbazhakan et al. represents imaging (black and white), hemodynamic forces (magenta), and collateral artery tracing (cyan) in a cohesive collage. The use of a collage symbolizes the interdisciplinary nature of this work.

See Anbazhakan et al. and News & Views by Mayerich and Wythe

Leukocytes and cardiac electrical storm

The cover image features original ECG traces from the STORM mice, in which ventricular tachycardia occurs owing to hypokalemia and acute myocardial infarction. Using this new model of non-genetic, spontaneous arrhythmia, Grune et al. show that leukocytes regulate the arrhythmia burden, and that immune cell dysfunction elicits an electrical storm and sudden cardiac death.

See Grune et al. and News & Views by Nicolás-Ávila and Hidalgo

Old drug, new tricks

Thalidomide treatment of individuals with severely symptomatic arteriovenous malformations who are refractory to conventional therapies holds promise, shows study by Boon et al.

See Boon et al.and News & Views by Teng and Siegel

Intestinal endothelium and stem cell cross-talk

Stem cells (green) and blood vessels (red) in early stage mouse intestinal adenoma.

See Bernier-Latmani et al. and News & Views by Koh

Deep learning predicts survival after ischemic heart disease

Popescu et al. develop a deep learning approach that combines neural networks and survival analysis from cardiac magnetic resonance images and clinical covariates for patients with ischemic heart disease to predict arrhythmic sudden death.

See Popescu et al. and News & Views by Krittanawong

The Lands and Seas of the Planet Heart

Koenig et al. present a comprehensive cellular atlas of healthy and failing human hearts, based on single-cell and single-nucleus RNA sequencing of cardiac biopsies from 45 individuals.

See Koenig et al.

Hundreds of new mouse genes functionally linked to CVD

Spielmann et al. screen the cardiac function and structure of about 4,000 monogenic knockout mice to identify 486 new genes whose lack results in cardiac disease, and validate a number of these genes in humans via UK Biobank human data.

See Spielmann et al. and News & Views by Ahlberg and Olesen

Reaching out

The cover image of our first issue is a wool artwork entitled ‘Reach’, created by contemporary British artist Sarah Vaci. Reflecting the originality and courage of the artwork, Nature Cardiovascular Research aims to bring together the cardiovascular and blood community, and promote, champion and disseminate inspiring, thought-provoking and original research.