We performed a genome-wide association study on 1,292 individuals with abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAAs) and 30,503 controls from Iceland and The Netherlands, with a follow-up of top markers in up to 3,267 individuals with AAAs and 7,451 controls. The A allele of rs7025486 on 9q33 was found to associate with AAA, with an odds ratio (OR) of 1.21 and P = 4.6 × 10−10. In tests for association with other vascular diseases, we found that rs7025486[A] is associated with early onset myocardial infarction (OR = 1.18, P = 3.1 × 10−5), peripheral arterial disease (OR = 1.14, P = 3.9 × 10−5) and pulmonary embolism (OR = 1.20, P = 0.00030), but not with intracranial aneurysm or ischemic stroke. No association was observed between rs7025486[A] and common risk factors for arterial and venous diseases—that is, smoking, lipid levels, obesity, type 2 diabetes and hypertension. Rs7025486 is located within DAB2IP, which encodes an inhibitor of cell growth and survival.

Mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAP kinases) are a family of kinases that regulates a range of biological processes implicated in the response to growth factors like latelet-derived growth factor (PDGF), epidermal growth factor (EGF), vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), and stress, such as ultraviolet irradiation, heat shock, and osmotic shock. The MAP kinase family consists of four major subfamilies of related proteins (extracellular regulated kinases 1/2 (ERK1/2), c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK), p38, and extracellular regulated kinase 5 (ERK5)) and regulates numerous cellular activities, such as apoptosis, gene expression, mitosis, differentiation, and immune responses. The deregulation of these kinases is shown to be involved in human diseases, such as cancer, immune diseases, inflammation, and neurodegenerative disorders. The awareness of the therapeutic potential of the inhibition of MAP kinases led to a thorough search for small-molecule inhibitors. Here, we discuss some of the most well-known MAP kinase inhibitors and their use in cancer research.

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Aims-Cystatin C and cathepsins could play a role in different processes and stages of the atherosclerotic disease. We aimed to investigate the relationship of cystatin C, and cathepsins L, and S, to lethal outcome in patients with peripheral arterial disease (PAD).Methods and results-We studied 378 patients with established PAD. Cox regression was used to assess relationships between serum cystatin C or cathepsins L and S, and time to lethal outcome. The role of cystatin for prognosis of cardiovascular death was assessed with c-statistic, and net reclassification improvement (NRI). Patients with cystatin C levels above 1 mg/l (fifth quintile) had a significantly increased adjusted risk for all-cause and cardiovascular mortality compared to patients with cystatin C levels below or equal to 1 mg/l (hazard ratios (HR) 2.2, 95% CI 1.22-4.12, and HR 3.2, 95% CI 1.39-7.59, respectively). Furthermore, high cystatin C levels were related with higher all-cause (adjusted HR 2.99, 95% CI 1.31-6.85) and cardiovascular mortality (adjusted HR 4.36, 95% CI 1.07-18.8) among PAD patients without renal impairment. Although the addition of cystatin C to conventional risk factors improved the accuracy of risk prediction model for cardiovascular mortality (0.72-0.79; p = 0.03), it did not reclassify a substantial proportion of patients to risk categories (NRI = 0.12, p = 0.128).Conclusions-Higher cystatin C levels independently predicted 5 years all-cause, and cardiovascular death in PAD patients. However, a small improvement in discrimination with the addition of cystatin C to conventional risk factors, and no improvement in reclassification of risk categories suggest that clinical usefulness of cystatin C for predicting cardiovascular mortality in PAD population might be modest.

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Several circulating agents in peripheral blood may predict AAA size, expansion rate or rupture. Few of them have clinical potential for future use. Confirmative studies and development of multivariate models are needed, together with continuing search for new biomarkers using the discovery based sciences within proteomics and/or genomics.

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AQP1 is expressed in atherosclerotic lesion neovasculature in human and mouse arteries and AQP1 deficiency augments lesion development in ANGII-promoted atherosclerosis in mice. Normal function of AQP1 affords cardiovascular protection.