Cardiovascular Toxicology - Call for Papers: Impact of Metal Exposures on Cardiovascular including Cardiometabolic Diseases: Pre-clinical models, Mechanistic Insights, Clinical Applications

Guest Editors:

Lu Cai, M.D., Ph.D., Professor, Pediatric Research Institute, Departments of Pediatrics, Radiation Oncology, Pharmacology and Toxicology, University of Louisville School of Medicine, Louisville, KY, USA

Katherine James, PhD, MSPH, MSCE, Associate Professor, Department of Environmental and Occupational Health, and Epidemiology; Center for Health, Work & Environment, Colorado School of Public Health, University of Colorado-Anschutz Medical Campus, Aurora, CO, USA,

Description

Cardiovascular diseases (CVD) remain the predominant threat to public health globally. Although CVDs are influenced by a variety of factors including genetics, ethnicity, obesity, physical inactivity, and unhealthy eating patterns, there is increasing awareness of the contribution of environmental factors, including air pollution and the built environment. Environmental factors, including air pollution and dietary intake of contaminated food and water, are associated with higher rates of CVD. One idea is that insufficient intake of essential metals, such as zinc (Zn), iron (Fe) and copper (Cu), that are needed for enzymes, transcriptional factors, and kinases to maintain critical cellular signaling pathway homeostasis, is disturbed. This can result from intake of food and water contaminated with non-essential metals such as heavy and toxic metals, including lead (Pb), cadmium (Cd), and arsenic (As). These metals can directly cause organ damage and also interfere with essential metals, resulting in essential metal dyshomeostasis. For instance, Zn deficiency or decreased ratio of Zn to other metals such as Zn/Fe ratio, often causes systemic oxidative stress and chronic inflammation, insulin resistance and eventually metabolic syndrome. Thus, this special issue will focus on the epidemiological and clinical and pre-clinical evidence for the associations between metal exposure and CVDs, as derived from pre-clinical animal model-derived, organoids, and cultured cell-based evidence to reveal potential pathogenic mechanisms. To this end, epidemiological and clinical observations, original research, various reviews (brief, comprehensive and focused), commentaries, and hypotheses regarding the impact of metals on CVD are all welcome.

Through this Special Issue, we aspire to bring together bring epidemiologists, clinicians, translational, and molecular toxicologists together to explore the role of occupational and environmental exposure to heavy metals through direct toxicity and indirect effects by disturbing homeostatic mechanisms regulating essential metals, as well systemic parameters including lipid levels and blood pressure, etc... We seek data linking multiple different metals to CVD/metabolic disease to define differences and commonalities between outcomes associated with metal exposures. We believe that all these discussions will accelerate the development of efficient prevention and therapeutic strategies necessary to prevent epidemic of cardiometabolic disease.   

The following topics are welcomed but not all inclusive:

• Discovery of CVD pathogenic mechanisms related to metal-associated biomarkers, particularly new markers such as miRNAs
• Studies of new approaches to metal-related toxicity including exposomics, metabolomics, epitranscriptomics, single cell genomics, etc...
• Contribution of metal-induced genomic instability-derived CVD pathogenesis 
• Novel therapeutics for the pathogenesis induced by non-essential metals
• Crosstalk between heart, blood vessel, lung and other organs regarding the pathogenic toxicity of metals
• Novel sources of metal exposures including Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems (ENDS)
• Role of mitochondria in metals-induced CVDs and metabolic syndrome
• Molecular triggers, mediators, and regulators of cell function/injury including apoptosis, autophagy, ferroptosis, necroptosis, pyroptosis, senescence, etc...
• Advances in the development and utility of novel in vitro and pre-clinical experimental models to investigate and understand the pathophysiology of metals in CVD
• Contribution of age, sex, ethnicity or other demographics in metal-induced CVD
• Role of microbiome in metal-induced or –exacerbated CVD

Submission deadline: May. 31, 2024