Genomics in cardiovascular diseases: analysis of the importance of the toll-like receptor signaling pathway

J Bustamante,¹ E Tamayo,² J Herreros<sup>3,4

1</sup>Department of Cardiovascular Surgery, Hospital Universitario La Princesa, Madrid, ²Department of Anesthesiology and Intensive Care, Hospital Clinico Universitario de Valladolid, Valladolid, ³Department of Cardiovascular Surgery, Hospital Universitario Valdecilla, Santander, ⁴Biomedical Engineering Institute of Santander, Santander, Spain

Abstract: The development of techniques for genomics study makes it possible for us to further our knowledge about the physiopathology of various immunological or infectious diseases. These techniques improve our understanding of the development and evolution of such diseases, including those of cardiovascular origin, whilst they help to bring about the design of new therapeutic strategies. We are reviewing the genetic alterations of immunity in said field, and focusing on the signaling pathway of toll-like receptors because not only does this play a decisive role in response to microorganisms, it is also heavily involved in modulating the inflammatory response to tissue damage, a side effect of numerous cardiovascular diseases. These alterations in tissue homeostasis are present under a wide range of circumstances, such as reperfusion ischemia (myocardial infarction) phenomena, arteriosclerosis, or valvulopathy.

Keywords: genome-wide association study, single-nucleotide polymorphism, innate immune system, ischemic/reperfusion, myocardial infarction