1. WNT Signaling in Cardiac and Vascular Disease
- Author
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Evangelos P. Daskalopoulos, W. Matthijs Blankesteijn, Gentian Lluri, Kevin C.M. Hermans, Arjun Deb, Sébastien Foulquier, and UCL - SSS/IREC/CARD - Pôle de recherche cardiovasculaire
- Subjects
RIGHT-VENTRICULAR CARDIOMYOPATHY ,0301 basic medicine ,PULMONARY ARTERIAL-HYPERTENSION ,Cell signaling ,SMOOTH-MUSCLE-CELLS ,Disease ,MESENCHYMAL STEM-CELLS ,WNT/BETA-CATENIN PATHWAY ,03 medical and health sciences ,GSK-3 ,Wnt Signaling Pathway/drug effects ,Animals ,Humans ,Medicine ,Molecular Targeted Therapy ,Review Articles ,Wnt Signaling Pathway ,Pharmacology ,business.industry ,Wnt signaling pathway ,GLYCOGEN-SYNTHASE KINASE-3 ,Angiotensin II ,FRIZZLED-RELATED PROTEIN-1 ,RECEPTOR-RELATED PROTEIN-5 ,Crosstalk (biology) ,030104 developmental biology ,Cardiovascular Diseases ,ENDOTHELIAL GROWTH-FACTOR ,Molecular Medicine ,SMALL-MOLECULE INHIBITORS ,Cardiovascular Diseases/drug therapy ,Signal transduction ,Stem cell ,business ,Neuroscience - Abstract
WNT signaling is an elaborate and complex collection of signal transduction pathways mediated by multiple signalingmolecules. WNT signaling is critically important for developmental processes, including cell proliferation, differentiation and tissue patterning. Little WNT signaling activity is present in the cardiovascular system of healthy adults, but reactivation of the pathway is observed in many pathologies of heart and blood vessels. The high prevalence of these pathologies and their significant contribution to human disease burden has raised interest in WNT signaling as a potential target for therapeutic intervention. In this review, we first will focus on the constituents of the pathway and their regulation and the different signaling routes. Subsequently, the role of WNT signaling in cardiovascular development is addressed, followed by a detailed discussion of its involvement in vascular and cardiac disease. After highlighting the crosstalk between WNT, transforming growth factor-beta and angiotensin II signaling, and the emerging role of WNT signaling in the regulation of stem cells, we provide an overview of drugs targeting the pathway at different levels. From the combined studies we conclude that, despite the sometimes conflicting experimental data, a general picture is emerging that excessive stimulation of WNT signaling adversely affects cardiovascular pathology. The rapidly increasing collection of drugs interfering at different levels of WNT signaling will allow the evaluation of therapeutic interventions in the pathway in relevant animal models of cardiovascular diseases and eventually in patients in the near future, translating the outcomes of the many preclinical studies into a clinically relevant context.
- Published
- 2017
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