About this Research Topic

Background

Despite great advances in diagnosis and treatment that we witnessed in the last decades, cardiovascular disease (CVD) remains one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality in Western Countries. This is in part due to the fact that basic pathogenic mechanisms remain in most cases poorly elucidated, thus significantly limiting the actual effectiveness of therapeutic interventions.

In this regard, mounting recent evidence indicates how immuno-inflammatory activation plays a pivotal role in many cardiovascular disorders, potentially opening new treatment options. Indeed, after the demonstration that atherosclerosis is primarily a chronic inflammatory disease of the arterial wall, accumulating data suggested that a dysregulation of the immune system and inflammatory pathways may be leading mechanisms in a large number of CVDs, including heart failure, pericardial disease, cardiomyopaties, and rhythm disorders. Immuno-inflammatory mechanisms may play a role in mediating or modulating even hereditary cardiovascular disorders with monogenic etiologies, such as long QT syndrome and arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy.

The scope of this Research Topic is to increase our current understanding on the role of immune system and inflammation in CVD, in the effort to help the field in moving forward.

The authors are encouraged to provide original data and up-to-date reviews focused on basic and clinical investigations in the area, with a particular interest in manuscripts focused on the translational aspects and novel therapeutic options. Potential topics include, but are not limited to: immunity and inflammation in atherosclerosis; cytokines and heart failure; cardiovascular involvement in chronic immuno-inflammatory disease; immunology of cardiomyopathies; inflammatory pericardial disease; autoimmune cardiac channelopathies and other immune-mediated arrhythmia; inflammatory mechanisms in cardiac rhythm disorders; anti-inflammatory and immunomodulating therapies for CVD.

Keywords: Cardiovascular disease, immune system, inflammation, basic and translational research, clinical investigations

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