Inflammatory processes in cardiovascular disease: a route to targeted therapies

Inflammation and its failure to resolve are firmly established as central to the development and complications of several cardiovascular diseasesTargeting of inflammatory processes in experimental models has been demonstrated to be beneficial in attenuating myocardial and arterial injury, reducing disease progression, and promoting healing, but clinical translation has been disappointingCurrent tools to measure 'inflammation' are nonspecific and represent downstream sequelae of biological processes, but provide little insight into disease state, site, or activation pathwaysContemporary molecular techniques (such as proteomics and gene-expression analysis) improve our ability to characterize underlying biological processes, and identify activation pathways as biomarkers and as a basis to develop new therapeuticsNoninvasive imaging tools enable the identification of activation of specific pathways and their sites, and can be used to monitor response to therapy