Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) continue to be a major global health concern, representing a leading cause of morbidity and mortality. This review provides a comprehensive examination of CVDs, encompassing their pathophysiology, diagnostic biomarkers, advanced imaging techniques, pharmacological treatments, surgical interventions, and the emerging role of herbal remedies. The review covers various cardiovascular conditions such as coronary artery disease, atherosclerosis, peripheral artery disease, deep vein thrombosis, pulmonary embolism, cardiomyopathy, rheumatic heart disease, hypertension, ischemic heart disease, heart failure, cerebrovascular diseases, and congenital heart defects. The review presents a wide range of cardiac biomarkers such as troponins, C-reactive protein, CKMB, BNP, NT-proBNP, galectin, adiponectin, IL-6, TNF-α, miRNAs, and oxylipins. Advanced molecular imaging techniques, including chest X-ray, ECG, ultrasound, CT, SPECT, PET, and MRI, have significantly enhanced our ability to visualize myocardial perfusion, plaque characterization, and cardiac function. Various synthetic drugs including statins, ACE inhibitors, ARBs, β-blockers, calcium channel blockers, antihypertensives, anticoagulants, and antiarrhythmics are fundamental in managing CVDs. Nonetheless, their side effects such as hepatic dysfunction, renal impairment, and bleeding risks necessitate careful monitoring and personalized treatment strategies. In addition to conventional therapies, herbal remedies have garnered attention for their potential cardiovascular benefits. Plant extracts and their bioactive compounds, such as flavonoids, phenolic acids, saponins, and alkaloids, offer promising cardioprotective effects and enhanced cardiovascular health. This review underscores the value of combining traditional and modern therapeutic approaches to improve cardiovascular outcomes. This review serves as a vital resource for researchers by integrating a broad spectrum of information on CVDs, diagnostic tools, imaging techniques, pharmacological treatments and their side effects, and the potential of herbal remedies.

The present study provides a detailed review of cardiovascular biomarkers critical for the diagnosis, prognosis, and pathophysiology of cardiovascular diseases, the leading cause of global morbidity and mortality. These biomarkers aid in detecting disease onset, progression, and therapeutic responses, providing insights into molecular mechanisms. Enzyme markers like AST, CK-MB, LDH, CA-III, and HBDH are pivotal for detecting myocardial injury during acute events. Protein markers such as CRP, H-FABP, and MPO shed light on inflammation and oxidative stress. Cardiac Troponins, the gold standard for myocardial infarction diagnosis, exhibit high specificity and sensitivity, while IMA and GPBB indicate ischemia and early myocardial damage. Peptide markers, including BNP and NT-proBNP, are crucial for heart failure diagnosis and management, reflecting ventricular stress and remodeling. Novel peptides like MR-proANP and MR-proADM aid in assessing disease severity. Lipid markers such as lipoprotein-associated phospholipase A2 and oxylipins provide insights into lipid metabolism and atherosclerosis. Inflammatory and stress-related biomarkers, including TNFα, IL-6, GDF-15, and Pentraxin 3, illuminate chronic inflammation in CVDs. Hormonal markers like copeptin and endothelin-1 highlight neurohormonal activation, while emerging markers such as ST2, galectin-3, PAPP-A, and TMAO elucidate fibrosis, remodeling, and metabolic dysregulation. The inclusion of microRNAs and long non-coding RNAs represents a breakthrough in biomarker research, offering sensitive tools for early detection, risk stratification, and therapeutic targeting. This review emphasizes the diagnostic and prognostic utility of these biomarkers, advancing cardiovascular care through personalized medicine.

The skin plays a critical role in human physiology, acting both as a barrier to environmental insults and as a window to environmental stimuli. Disruption of this homeostasis leads to numerous skin disorders. Human and animal skin differ significantly, limiting the translational potential of animal-based investigations to advance therapeutics to human skin diseases. Hence, there is a critical need for physiologically relevant human skin models to explore novel treatment strategies. Recent advances in microfluidic technologies now allow design and generation of organ-on-chip devices that mimic critical features of tissue architecture. Skin-on-a-chip and microfluidic platforms hold promise as useful models for diverse dermatology applications. Compared with traditional in vitro models, microfluidic platforms offer improved control of fluid flow, which in turn allows precise manipulation of cell and molecular distribution. These properties enable the generation of multilayered in vitro models that mimic human skin structure while simultaneously offering superior control over nutrient and drug distribution. Researchers have used microfluidic platforms for a variety of applications in skin research, including epidermal–dermal cellular crosstalk, cell migration, mechanobiology, microbiome–immune response interactions, vascular biology, and wound healing. In this review, we comprehensively review state-of-the-art microfluidic models for skin research. We discuss the challenges and promise of current skin-on-a-chip technologies and provide a roadmap for future research in this active field.

Both oncogenic and tumor suppressor roles have been assigned to Notch signaling in melanoma. In clinical trials, Notch inhibitors proved to be ineffective for melanoma treatment. Notch signaling has also been implicated in melanoma transdifferentiation, a prognostic feature in primary melanoma. In this study, we investigated the role of Notch signaling in melanoma tumor development and growth using the genetic model of mouse melanoma by crossing BRAF^CA/+/Pten^+/+/Tyr-CreER+ (B) and BRAF^CA/+/Pten^-/-/Tyr-CreER + (BP) mice with Notch1 or Notch2 floxed allele mice. The topical application of tamoxifen induced tumors in BP mice but not in B mice with or without the deletion of either Notch1 or Notch2. These data show that the loss of either Notch1 nor Notch2 can substitute the tumor suppressor function of Pten in BRAFV600E-induced melanomagenesis. However, in Pten-null background, the loss of either Notch1 or Notch2 appeared to accelerate BRAFV600E-induced tumor development, suggesting a tumor suppressor role for Notch1 and Notch2 in BRAFV600E/Pten-null driven melanomagenesis. Quantitative immunochemical analysis of a human cutaneous melanoma tissue microarray that consists of >100 primary tumors with complete clinical history showed a weak to moderate correlation between NOTCH protein levels and clinical and pathological parameters. Our data show that Notch signaling is involved during melanomagenesis and suggest that the identification of genes and signaling pathways downstream of Notch could help devise strategies for melanoma prevention.

Progression of cutaneous primary melanoma that arises from melanocytes leads to lethal metastatic disease. Molecular mechanisms that control the growth of primary melanoma in the skin and promote progression are not fully understood. Previously we showed that RAP guanine exchange factors EPAC1/2 (Exchange Protein Activated by cyclic AMP) promote the growth of primary melanoma and loss of dependency on EPACs is associated with metastatic progression. In this study, we show that EPACs are activated during malignant transformation of melanocytes, and chemical inhibition or genetic deletion of EPAC inhibits melanomagenesis in Braf/Pten mice. Low expression of EPAC mRNA and its effector RAP1-GTP protein in primary melanoma correlate with better recurrence-free survival. RNAseq analysis of matched primary and metastatic melanoma cells treated with an EPAC inhibitor showed that TXNIP, an important regulator of redox homeostasis, is a downstream effector of EPAC signaling. We also show that EPACs promote melanoma growth by regulating redox homeostasis and mitochondrial ROS through activation of mechanistic target of rapamycin complex 1 (mTORC1) that stabilizes hypoxia-inducible factor 1-alpha (HIF-1α), a transcriptional activator of redox regulator TXNIP and glycolytic enzymes. Our data suggest that targeting mechanisms that melanoma cells employ to bypass EPAC dependency is a potential therapeutic approach. Graphical

Progression of cutaneous primary melanoma that arises from melanocytes leads to lethal metastatic disease. Molecular mechanisms that control the growth of primary melanoma in the skin and promote progression are not fully understood. Previously we showed that RAP guanine exchange factors EPAC1/2 (Exchange Proteins Activated by cyclic AMP) promote the growth of primary melanoma and loss of dependency on EPACs is associated with metastatic progression. In this study, we show that EPACs are activated during malignant transformation of melanocytes, and chemical inhibition or genetic deletion of EPAC inhibits melanomagenesis in Braf/Pten mice. Low expression of EPAC mRNA and its effector RAP1-GTP protein in primary melanoma correlate with better recurrence-free survival. RNAseq analysis of matched primary and metastatic melanoma cells treated with an EPAC inhibitor showed that TXNIP, an important regulator of redox homeostasis, is a downstream effector of EPAC signaling. We also show that EPACs promote melanoma growth by regulating redox homeostasis and mitochondrial ROS through activation of mechanistic target of rapamycin complex 1 (mTORC1) that stabilizes hypoxia-inducible factor 1-alpha (HIF-1α), a transcriptional activator of redox regulator TXNIP and glycolytic enzymes. Our data suggest that targeting mechanisms that melanoma cells employ to bypass EPAC dependency is a potential therapeutic approach.