Page 43 - Rappaport Institute Magazine 2024

CELL BIOLOGY AND CANCER SCIENCE
40-41
The double edge sword for heart failure and cancer diseases
Cardiovascular diseases and cancer are the leading cause of mortality and morbidity around the globe, leading to a substantial socio-economic burden. Heart diseases and cancer together account for more than 40% of deaths in the US. Interestingly, heart failure and cancer share common risk factors such as genetic predisposition, sedentary lifestyle, smoking, alcohol consumption and chemical exposure. While heart failure and cancer have until recently been considered separate diseases, it is becoming evident that they are highly connected and affect each other’s outcome at multiple levels. With the increase of life span there is an increase in patients displaying both disease manifestations. In particular, several recent studies in our lab using multiple mouse models for heart failure demonstrated that heart failure promote cell proliferation and cancer cell migration and metastasis seeding. On the other hand, we have demonstrated that cancer growth ameliorates cardiac dysfunction and dampens fibrosis. Currently, we aim to harness cancer paradigms for the treatment of heart failure and fibrosis diseases.
Selected Publications
ˆ Avraham, S., Abu-Sharki, S., Shofti, R., Haas, T., Korin, B., Kalfon, R., Friedman, T., Shiran, A., Saliba, W., Shaked, Y*. and Aronheim, A.*. “Early cardiac remodeling promotes tumor growth and metastasis” Circulation 142, 670-683 (2020).
ˆ Awwad, L., and Aronheim, A. “Cardiac dysfunction promotes cancer
progression via multiple secreted factors” Cancer Research 82, 1753-1761 doi: 10.1158/0008-5472.CAN-21-2463 (2022).
ˆ Awwad, L., Shofti, R., Haas, T., and Aronheim, A. “Tumor growth ameliorates cardiac dysfunction” Cells 12, 1853 doi: 10.3390/cells12141853 (2023).
ˆ Achlaug L., Awwad, L., Langier Goncalves, I., Goldenberg, T., and Aronheim, A. “Tumor growth ameliorates cardiac dysfunction and dampens fibrosis in a mouse model for Duchenne muscular dystrophy”. International Journal of Molecular Science 24, 12595 doi.org/10.3390/ijms241612595 (2023).
ˆ Awwad, L., and Aronheim, A. “Tumor progression reverses cardiac hypertrophy and fibrosis in a tetracycline regulated ATF3 transgenic mouse model” Cells 12, 2289 doi.org/10.3390/cells12182289 (2023).
aronheim@technion.ac.il
Ami Aronheim Lab
Ami Aronheim, PhD Professor in Cell Biology
PhD, 1993 – The Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel
Heart failure promotes cancer progression and metastasis spread. On the other hand, cancer growth suppresses fibrosis, inhibits cardiac hypertrophy and ameliorates cardiac contractile function.