Cardiovascular and inflammatory signaling pathways

Cardiovascular and inflammatory signaling pathways comprise numerous interconnected molecular cascades that control immune and inflammatory responses in cardiovascular tissues. These include, but are not limited to, the NF-κB, NLRP3 inflammasome, MAPK, JAK/STAT, and toll-like receptor pathways, all of which interact to regulate cytokine production, immune cell recruitment, and cellular responses to injury and stress. These pathways are not individual therapeutic targets but rather contain many druggable nodes (e.g., cytokines such as IL-1β and TNF, receptors such as TLRs, and kinases such as JAKs), and dysregulation of these pathways is fundamental to the development and complications of cardiovascular diseases such as atherosclerosis, myocardial infarction, and heart failure.