A pioneering Israeli study has identified TRIM63 as a significant genetic contributor to hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM)—the most common hereditary heart disease worldwide. The findings, published in Circulation: Genomic and Precision Medicine, could transform genetic screening and treatment protocols for HCM patients around the globe.

Led by Dr. Noa Ruhrman Shahar of Rabin Medical Center (Beilinson Hospital) and Professor Shay Ben-Shachar of the Clalit Research Institute, the study provides compelling evidence for the gene’s role in both causing and increasing susceptibility to HCM.

“This is a life-saving discovery,” said Dr. Ruhrman Shahar. “Recognizing carriers of disease-causing TRIM63 mutations enables early monitoring and intervention, dramatically lowering the risk of severe, even fatal, cardiac events.”

Oral hormone therapy may benefit heart health in menopausal women. A new analysis of data from the Women’s Health Initiative found that estrogen-based oral hormone therapy had a long-term beneficial effect on biomarkers of cardiovascular health, including cholesterol.

Henry Daniell of the School of Dental Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and collaborators found that medications commonly prescribed for the treatment of hypertension have a negative impact on the same pathway they target to lower blood pressure. Daniell says that when trying to lower blood pressure “you don’t want to inhibit a key cardioprotective enzyme, ACE2, and you don't want to increase the angiotensin II pool. And here we observed both.”