Sleep protects the heart after myocardial infarction through a neuro-immune axis: time to implement healthy sleep for cardiovascular prevention?” edited by Fabrizia Bonacina and Daniela Carnevale 

In this commentary of the paper from the group of McAlpine, published in Nature (Huynh et al. 2024), Fabrizia Bonacina and Daniela Carnevale discussed how the brain and heart reciprocally communicate to trigger neuro-immune activation, which in turn modulates sleep behaviour.  Based on the evidence of the paper, they discussed how this crosstalk between brain and heart contributes to the recruitment to the infarcted heart of a catecholamine-responsive monocyte subset, which improves cardiac inflammation and healing. While restorative sleep could promote cardiovascular health, the work identified novel strategies that could be implemented to limit acute cardiac inflammation. 

“Harnessing the power of the brain to fight metabolic diseases” edited by Emiel P C van der Vorst and Giuseppe Lembo 

In a recent commentary, Emiel van der Vorst and Giuseppe Lembo discussed the findings of two recent Nature publications (Beddows et al. 2024 and Lyu et al. 2024) focusing on the effects of the brain on cardiometabolic diseases. Beddows et al. show that obesity leads to inflammation in the hypothalamus, which triggers the buildup of perineuronal nets in the arcuate nucleus. This accumulation contributes to neurofibrosis, further exacerbating obesity and cardiometabolic diseases. Meanwhile, Lyu et al. reveal that activation of the dorsal motor nucleus of the vagus plays a key role in fat absorption in the jejunum, promoting the development of obesity and cardiometabolic diseases.  

Nevertheless, further research is needed to understand the impact on other organs and to assess the clinical relevance in humans.

“Unravelling inflammation: the critical role of ETS2 in macrophage activation and chronic disease” edited by Soumaya Ben-Aicha and Gustavo Ramos 

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