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Cardiometabolic Aging Driven by Multi-Organ Crosstalk: Mechanisms and Therapeutic Strategies
Shouyao Zhang1, Chenggui Xu2, Yongli Song3
1The First Clinical Medical School, Yunnan University of Chinese Medicine, Kunming 650500, China.
Insights
Cardiac aging is a systemic issue caused by crosstalk between the heart and metabolic organs. Targeting these multi-organ communication pathways offers new strategies to delay cardiovascular aging.
Area of Science:
- Cardiovascular Biology
- Aging Research
- Metabolic Disease
Background:
- Cardiac senescence is traditionally viewed as isolated organ decline.
- Emerging evidence suggests systemic factors drive heart aging through organ crosstalk.
Purpose of the Study:
- To present an integrated framework of multi-organ crosstalk in cardiac aging.
- To identify molecular mediators and pathways involved in this crosstalk.
- To propose novel therapeutic targets for cardiovascular aging.
Main Methods:
- Review of existing literature on heart-metabolic organ interactions.
- Analysis of molecular mediators (cytokines, metabolites, TMAO, RAAS, EVs) across crosstalk axes.
- Integration of findings into a systemic multi-organ crosstalk model.
Main Results:
- Identified key crosstalk axes: epicardial adipose tissue-heart, skeletal muscle-heart, gut-heart, and kidney-heart.
- Demonstrated convergence of local mediators onto common pathways: oxidative stress, impaired autophagy, and cellular senescence.
- Highlighted synergistic action of circulating signals in promoting systemic cardiac aging.
Conclusions:
- Cardiac aging is a modifiable process driven by systemic multi-organ crosstalk.
- Therapeutic strategies targeting senolytics, myokine mimetics, gut microbiota, RAAS/SGLT2 inhibitors, and lifestyle interventions show promise.
- A shift towards a systemic, multi-organ perspective is crucial for understanding and treating cardiometabolic aging.
Abstract:
Cardiac senescence is not an isolated organ decline but a systemic consequence driven by pathological crosstalk between the heart and its peripheral metabolic organs. In this review, we discard the traditional organ-centric perspective and construct an integrated framework around multi-organ crosstalk axes, including the epicardial adipose tissue-heart axis, the skeletal muscle-heart axis, the gut-heart axis, and the kidney-heart axis. For each axis, we dissect the local molecular mediators-inflammatory cytokines, lipotoxic metabolites, microbiota-derived compounds such as trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO), renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system (RAAS) effectors, and extracellular vesicle (EV) cargoes-and illustrate how they converge onto common pathways of oxidative stress, impaired autophagy, and cellular senescence. Importantly, we emphasize that these signals do not operate in isolation; they act synergistically through the circulation, converting local organ dysfunction into systemic cardiac aging via convergence onto shared senescence pathways. By redefining aging as a potentially modifiable multi-organ crosstalk, we propose emerging nodal points-senolytics, myokine mimetics, gut microbiota modulation, RAAS/sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 (SGLT2) inhibitors, and integrated lifestyle strategies-to block pathological crosstalk and delay cardiovascular aging. This framework shifts the research focus from isolated organs to systemic multi-organ crosstalk, providing new insights into cardiometabolic aging.
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