[Secretome Therapeutics (Business Wire)] Secretome Therapeutics, a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing novel therapies derived from neonatal cardiac progenitor cells (nCPC), today announced the closing of a $30 million Series A financing from RA Capital Management, LP (“RA Capital”), a multi-stage investment manager dedicated to evidence-based investing in public and private healthcare, life sciences, and planetary health companies. RA Capital was the sole investor in the financing.

[Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America] Researchers developed a screening platform using hiPSC–derived cardiomyocytes to identify human cardiotropic lipid nanoparticles (LNPs). By screening a chemically diverse LNP library, they identified a lead LNP, 18:1 TAP10, with potent human cardiac transfection capability.

[Cell Reports] Scientists investigated the impact of maternal hyperglycemia on cardiac development using a diabetic pregnancy mouse model and pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes.

[Circulation Research] The authors investigated hypothesized roles and mechanisms of cell type–specific, selective activation of different vascular NADPH oxidase (NOX) isoforms in obesity and metabolic syndrome.

[Journal of Clinical Investigation] Investigators examined the consequences of Jagged2 JAGGED2 (JAG2) deficiency and modeled pathogenic JAG2 variants in vitro and in vivo, the latter in mouse and fly models and with particular attention to the muscle stem cell-muscle endothelial cell niche.

[Science Advances] Scientists used a flow cytometry approach coupled with scRNAseq to determine the muscle senescent cell identity and transcriptional landscape during skeletal muscle recovery following disuse atrophy.

[Cell Stem Cell] Researchers identified a smooth muscle-derived transient progenitor cell population, marked by CD34 expression, which emerges after artery injury.

[Biochemical Society Transactions] Investigators highlight the role of heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleoprotein K (hnRNPK) in myogenic differentiation, gene expression control, signaling pathway cross-talk, and skeletal muscle development.

[EMBO Molecular Medicine] Using a combination of in vitro, in vivo, and ex vivo models, scientists demonstrated that soluble TREM2 (sTREM2) promotes vascular permeability and drives ascites formation. Mechanistically, sTREM2 binds to nucleolin on endothelial cells and activates the AKT/eNOS signaling pathway, which leads to VE-cadherin phosphorylation and ultimately vascular leakage.

[Journal of Advanced Research] While the significance of mechanical forces in vascular diseases is widely acknowledged, substantial gaps persist in understanding how these forces are sensed and transduced in endothelial cells and vascular smooth muscle cells, as well as their involvement in various vascular diseases.

[Jagwire] Four early-career researchers from the Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University have been recently awarded Bridge Career Development Awards from the American Heart Association.

[Science Advances] Researchers showed that enhancer of zeste homolog 2 (EZH2)-mediated histone H3 at lysine-27 trimethylation is elevated in carotid plaques from patients with diabetes and in the aortic endothelium of diabetic Apoe−/− mice. They identified EZH2 as a driver of endothelial-to-mesenchymal transition in diabetes-associated atherosclerosis.