Bridging Aortic Valve Calcification and Arterial Disease: Insights into Common and Unique Risk Factors and Mechanisms

The field of cardiovascular disease is increasingly focused on understanding the interconnected yet distinct nature of aortic valve disease—especially calcific aortic stenosis—and arterial disorders such as atherosclerosis and vascular calcification. Although these conditions share many traditional risk factors, including age, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, diabetes, and chronic kidney disease, their anatomical localization, clinical progression, and response to therapy are notably different. Both disease processes involve key elements such as inflammation, lipid deposition, mineral metabolism dysregulation, and extracellular matrix remodeling, but the intricacies of their cellular, molecular, genetic, and biomechanical underpinnings remain only partially defined. As a consequence, a lack of mechanistic clarity has hampered the development of targeted therapies for aortic valve pathology, in stark contrast to the advances achieved for arterial disease. This gap may explain why interventions effective for vascular disease often fail to benefit aortic valve stenosis, highlighting the urgent need for more nuanced insights.This Research Topic aims to integrate experimental, translational, and clinical research to clarify the shared and distinct mechanisms underpinning aortic valve disease and arterial pathology. The goal is to create a unified framework that distinguishes how common exposures and risk factors produce divergent phenotypes and clinical outcomes in the valve compared to the arterial wall. By assembling basic scientists, translational investigators, and clinicians across diverse disciplines—valve biology, vascular biology, genetics, imaging, and cardiology—this initiative seeks to enable new diagnostics and therapies that address the unique biology of each tissue.To gather further insights on the overlap and distinctions between aortic valve and arterial disease, we welcome articles addressing, but not limited to, the following themes:o Comparative cellular and molecular pathways driving calcification in the aortic valve and arterial wallo Genetic, epigenetic, and transcriptomic factors conferring organ-specific susceptibility or resilienceo Traditional and emerging risk factors, including lipid and mineral metabolism, inflammation, hemodynamics, and biomechanical stresso Advances in multimodality imaging and biomarkers for discriminating valve versus arterial disease burden and activityo Mechanistic explanations for the failure of systemic therapies in aortic stenosis, and development of targeted interventionso Clinical outcomes and management challenges in patients with concomitant valve and arterial diseases, with implications for risk stratification and individualized careThe scope encompasses all article types. The overarching aim is to unravel the common and distinct pathobiology of aortic valve and arterial disorders, enabling the evolution of precise diagnostic, preventive, and therapeutic strategies.*Topic Editor Oscar Plunde is a shareholder and current employee of Novo Nordisk. The other Topic Editors report no competing interests related to this Research Topic. Topic editors: Oscar Plunde, Loretta Zsuzsa Kiss Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/81689/bridging-aortic-valve-calcification-and-arterial-disease-insights-into-common-and-unique-risk-factors-and-mechanisms