Research Interests

1. Study on the effects of metabolic pathways on cardiovascular and cerebrovascular homeostasis and disease mechanisms. Cardiac and vascular functional homeostasis is closely related to their metabolic states, and metabolic pathways are widely involved in the occurrence and development of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases (such as aneurysms, myocardial infarction, stroke, etc.). Metabolic regulation is an important research field after gene regulation and protein regulation. The team identified a variety of metabolic molecules and pathways involved in new pathophysiological mechanisms of cardiovascular disease and key target proteins, including macrophages activating inflammatory responses through the release of succinic acid; Cell connexin Cx43 maintains vascular endothelial barrier function by regulating NAD+ levels. In aneurysmal state, smooth muscle cells GSDMD mediated the release of putressin and phenotypic transition. New mechanisms of lipid metabolism such as apo(a) and lipoprotein signaling pathways affecting the cardiovascular system.

2. Discovery of new active factors derived from endogenous and intestinal flora and their metabolic regulation. In cardiovascular and cerebrovascular disease-related population samples, we identified multiple active factors through multi-omics methods, and found their effects and mechanisms on metabolic related diseases such as diabetes, fatty liver, and tumors. Among them, we demonstrated that the endogenous factor membranin A1 acts on different cell types and plays a protective role in arterial dissection, diabetic nephropathy and obesity, and vascular endothelial metabolism regulates angiogenesis and tumor progression in tumors. Intestinal flora is another important source of human metabolism. The changes of metabolic spectrum caused by intestinal flora disturbance in the course of disease further affect the course of disease, thus generating new theoretical systems such as enteric axis, enteric brain axis and enteric liver axis. For the first time, the team identified a new metabolic product of intestinal flora, trimethylaminovaleric acid (TMAVA), and clarified its mechanism of aggravating fatty liver and heart hypertrophy. It also developed a mass spectrometry method for the detection of trimethylamine oxide (TMAO), an important metabolic product of intestinal flora activity, and discovered its new physiological functions in stroke and pulmonary hypertension. Through metabolic intervention and metabolism related regulation, we put forward new ideas and insights on the treatment of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases and metabolic related diseases.

3. Combined with new materials and technologies to carry out translational medicine research on cardio-cerebrovascular related diagnosis and treatment. The application of new technologies to develop cardiovascular and cerebrovascular disease diagnosis and treatment methods, including the use of biological and nanomaterials equipped with imaging groups or pharmacological components to achieve non-invasive imaging or targeted therapy for diseases such as arterial plaque, the use of molecular probes and structural prediction to develop related drugs to correct disease metabolic disorders, the optimization of clinical mass spectrometry detection methods to develop a multi-indicator comprehensive warning system for cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, etc. The diagnosis and treatment of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases can continue to develop on the new track.

Lemin Lab