NSU researcher makes breakthrough discovery to curb heart failure (USA)

"A Nova Southeastern University researcher has announced a breakthrough discovery to block a protein that can contribute to heart failure. His discovery will appear in an upcoming issue of the prestigious medical journal, the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. Anastasios Lymperopoulos, Ph.D., an NSU College of Pharmacy assistant professor of pharmacology, has discovered a novel method, using gene therapy, to block the actions of a gene-encoded protein. That protein, known as beta-arrestin 1, causes an increase of aldosterone production from the body’s adrenal glands into the blood. Aldosterone is a hormone. It increases the reabsorption of sodium and water into the kidneys, causing high blood volume and blood pressure. It also has several direct damaging effects on the heart, such as fibrosis, hypertrophy, and inflammation. An increase in blood volume causes high blood pressure. This in turn decreases the pumping action of the heart, and is one of the causes of heart failure"

Overweight teen boys show heart damage (USA)

"Despite having normal blood pressure, U.S. researchers say overweight male teens show signs of heart damage. Researchers at the Medical College of Georgia in Augusta looked at 126 healthy 15- to 17-year-old students in a local high school and found overweight males showed elevated levels of the hormone aldosterone. This hormone produced by the adrenal gland is known to increase sodium, water retention and blood pressure. The researchers suggest the overweight males' thickened heart walls and an increase in the size of the pumping chamber of the heart may be linked to aldosterone-linked inflammation and formation of fibrous tissue in the heart muscle, the researchers say. Overweight females in the group did not have elevated aldosterone levels or the associated heart damage, perhaps the researchers say, because of estrogen's protective effect on the heart. "These associations give us reason to question whether we should be screening for and treating high aldosterone in obese males with normal pressures, particularly those with a family history of cardiovascular disease," Dr. Dayal D. Raja of the Medical College of Georgia in Augusta, the study's leader, said in a statement. The findings were presented at the annual meeting of the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists in Houston"